


The Trainer and the Cannoli

by Petersolacenovak



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bakery, Depressed Kageyama Tobio, Drama & Romance, Ennoshita Chikara is a Good Friend, Hinata Shouyou & Kozume Kenma Friendship, Kageyama was adopted by two Irish people and that's a big thing I just made up, M/M, Minor Haiba Lev/Yaku Morisuke, Minor Shimizu Kiyoko/Yachi Hitoka, Minor Takeda Ittetsu/Ukai Keishin, Oblivious Hinata Shouyou, Pro Volleyball Player Oikawa Tooru, Sawamura Daichi in Love, Sugawara Koushi-centric, Terushima flirts with everyone, Trans Kuroo Tetsurou
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-08
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2020-05-30 21:28:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 33,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19411750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Petersolacenovak/pseuds/Petersolacenovak
Summary: "So you're the guy who's been selling my client canolis during training week?"Suga looked up from his crossword puzzle with an unimpressed raised eyebrow. He looked the man in front of him over and immediately blushed at the sight of his pouting lips and puffed up chest."Yeah," Suga nodded and set his paper down, red faced, "What's it to you?"///Or: Some random guy crawls on all fours into Suga's bakery wanting cannolis. It goes on for maybe two weeks before a man (a very angry Daichi) storms in claiming to be the cannoli weirdo's personal trainer. Suga finds him attractive.





	1. Lemon Squares and Vomit

**Author's Note:**

> So yeah I wanna write somthing for this fandom cause it's amazing and I love the fics that are already in the fandom and wanna add to it.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> At the sight of a taller more sturdy man on the floor, crawling like a spider and heading straight for him, Suga felt a scream waiting in his throat.
> 
> When the man reached his feet, he looked up and said, out of breath and red-faced, “I need four Cannolis. As fast as possible please.”
> 
> Suga stared, unable to move until the man gave another shout of;
> 
> “Quickly please!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :/

  
Business was booming.

Koshi Sugawara’s bakery was thriving in the cool fall weather, doors open, oven warm, and people clambering into the shop with happy hungry grins. Their stomachs growled with desire at the sight of warm cookies being freshly laid on the display counter by a young man with bright orange hair and icing covered fingers. The walls were covered in silly pastry slogans and puns like ‘All or Muffin’ and ‘I Sugar Coat Everything’, the paint underneath such signs being a light and inviting pink.

The entire place was decked with tiny paintings of goodies and treats, cupcakes being the most popular design and even hanging on the front door. A few tables sat in front of the counter where the workers stood, taking orders and reaching into the display case to give to the hungry customers. The tables held little vases of lilac and neat tablecloths, men, women, kids, others, sitting at them with scrumptious goodies to dig into.

All of these customers knew and followed the rules of the shop.

Politely greet the person at the counter, order their treat, make nice small talk with some of the other patrons while their sweet was made or pulled off the rack-and ignore the several arguments that seemed to constantly break out between two of the staff whenever they neared each other.

Well, at least most of the patrons did.

“I said four chocolate cupcakes _with_ rainbow sprinkles,” A tall man that shoved his dark black hair in front of his eyes growled, “Not four chocolate cupcakes _without_ sprinkles, dumbass.”

The same small man with orange hair and sticky fingers who laid out a batch of cookies earlier, turned to snap back at his co-worker, eyes blazing, “Sorry for the lack of rainbows, your heighness,” He said sarcastically, causing the other to deepen their scowl and for him to roll his eyes back,

“I sadly wasn't able to hear you in the kitchen, seeing as I was- hmm, what was is it? Oh yeah-doing your damn job, Tobio-bitch!”

By the time Suga managed to get to them from all the way in the kitchen, the two were at each other’s throats, dangerously close to throwing rainbow sprinkles at each other. A small boy and a young woman stood staring at the two, waiting patiently for their cupcakes and tapping their toes.

Suga’s eyes closed for a moment and he slowly breathed in, savouring the scent of the buttermilk frosting his had just finished layering onto a race-care themed birthday cake. And then he was stepping into the fray, eyes narrowed and mouth open as he yelled at the boys, “I cannot believe you two right now!”

The store went quiet then, Hinata and Kageyama stopping their fight to look Sugawara in the eyes and bow their heads in apology and embarrassment.

Suga appreciated the act, voice softening when he saw them both look to him in direction, “Head into the back after you give them their order,” He said, “You both are on janitorial duty till we close.”

The two boys frowned, shuffling off into the back of the store after handing over the bagged cupcakes and putting the total into the cash register.

“I'm sorry about that.” He told the woman and child as they watched the retreating forms of the two men.

“It's fine.” The woman muttered, eyes flickering to meet Suga’s after looking back at the other patrons (all had returned to eating), “Is this a normal thing that happens?” She asked, “No one else seems particularly startled by all of that.”

“Well I-”

“It's always like this.” A voice quipped from behind them.

They both looked to see a tiny man with a blazing grin, arms crossed over his head and legs tipping his chair back dangerously. He shot them a challenging smirk and Suga stiffened, looking from him and over to the person in the seat beside him.

The person was a very large man with long tangled hair stacked into a messy bun. He had his face in his hands, but when he felt Suga’s stare he shyly said to his friend, “Noya, please stop destroying Suga’s business.”

“Thank you, Asahi.” Suga thanked the man and turned back to the woman, ignoring the way Nishinoya spluttered out complaints and attempted to gain their attention once again.

“I mean, he's not wrong.” He chuckled out when the woman gave a questioning face.

She nodded, snatched up her order and lead her son out of the store in a quickened pace.

“Come back soon!” Suga called after her with a warm smile before sighing and melting into the counter.

“You know,” Noya looked at the slumped over man, “ You should just always keep them in the back.” He glanced over at the windows by the front door, watching as the woman and child crossed the street before walking out of view.

Suga remained quiet, glancing over at the two men with pursed lips before replying, “But I need to be back there baking, while they're out here. Hineta only knows how to make chocolate chip cookies-which I first thought was a little disappointing,” He threw his hands up for emphasis and walked around the display case, grabbing a towel and wiping away a smudge, “But then Kageyama showed up,” He ranted, “I cannot and could not believe he actually wanted this job, seeing as when I asked him, ‘what's your favorite thing to bake?’ He replied, ‘I don't bake’.” He stopped and looked to his friends with wide eyes and an exasperated expression.

“Well, he applied for working at the counter, right?” Asahi asked, taking a sip of green-tea he had ordered.

“No,” Suga shook his head, “I said on the help wanted poster that I need pastry chefs to help me in the back who are okay with also doing counter work from time to time.”

Asahi frowned.

“You know what I think?” Suga whisper shouted after a moment of silence from all three of them.

“Hmm?”

“I think Kageyama only applied here because Hineta was working here.” Suga put down his rag and turned to a table where a man sat with an eclair and a cup of coffee. He quickly re-filled the man’s cup, to which he got a thanks, and then stalked back over to his friends.

“Why would he do that? They seem to hate each other.” Noya asked with a scrunched up face in thought.

Suga shrugged, a tiny grin on his lips as he told them, “I think Kageyama has a-”

The conversation came to a screeching halt as a man with light brown hair crashed into the bakery, panting heavily and looking over his shoulder like he was being chased.

Suga’s heart filled with worry as the man squatted down to get out of view from the windows and began crawling towards them quickly.

At the sight of a taller more sturdy man on the floor, crawling like a spider and heading straight for him, Suga felt a scream waiting in his throat.

When the man reached his feet, he looked up and said, out of breath and red-faced, “I need four Cannolis. As fast as possible please.”

Suga stared, unable to move until the man gave another shout of;

“Quickly please!”

And then Suga was moving, going behind the counter and opening the display case to grab four cannolis with confused and scared hands. He set them inside one of the newly designed boxes he had ordered earlier in the week and taped it closed.

“Can I ask-” The words died on his tongue as the man grabbed the box and threw a fifty at him before clambering to his feet and booking it out of the store.

The place remained quiet for another ten seconds before the rest of the patrons all filed out, seeming to be out-weirded enough for the day.

Suga didn't blame them, seeing that man on the floor and crawling like a zombie was actually terrifying.

“You two gonna head out?” He asked when he turned back to Asahi and Nishinoya.

“Yeah…” Asahi answered, “That was...odd.” He got up from his seat and took one last sip of his tea before looking to his friend to follow.

“See ya on Friday!” Noya said, hugging Suga and then bounding out the door-most likely wanting to catch sight of the man again.

“You tell me if that creep comes back, alright?” Asahi questioned Suga when it was just the two of them.

“Why?” Suga asked and let out a light chuckle.

“Because he crawled into the store like a wild animal.”

“Yeah, but what would you-”

Asahi cut him off with a hard stare, “Just tell me. Okay?”

Suga looked the man over, seeing the concerned expression on his face and felt himself give in to his friend’s words.

“I'll tell you.” He said.

“Good,” Asahi pulled him into a hug and patted the top of his head with his large comforting hand.

“See you on Friday!” Suga called after him when they disentangled from one another and Asahi made his way to the door.

“See ya.” Asahi said back with a short wave, darting outside and jogging towards where Suga assumed Noya would be. And that boy did like to move around so Suga did not envy Asahi’s journey to catch up to him.

Suga sighed when he looked around the shop, taking in it’s new emptiness. Just a few minuets ago the place had been packed.

One argument about rainbow sprinkles and a man crawling on the floor for cannolis later and everyone was gone.

At least it was Fall, the time when college kids just started getting used to their routines and began to splurge on after school treats. He was lucky the bakery was so close to the university, getting college students and several stressed out professors. Not only was the place so close to campus, but the street was also turning into a bigger shopping place, allowing more and more people to find their way into his place.

There were so many different spots opening up, allowing more people of different diversities, interests, ages, and habits to venture over. Just that last week a Narnes and Boble, a JCdimes, and a new gym opened up across the street.

All of those places were great to have beside him.

Except for the gym. That place was starting to get irritating.

Not that he hated fit people. Sure, his abs were gone from high school and he missed them greatly and envied those with their own, but he was irritated by how much attention the place was trying to get with all of it’s advertising and people standing outside it and spinning a sign.

Also, yes, Suga was slightly irate at seeing so many beautiful people who would never dare set foot into his shop.

He really should invest in making a selection of vegan treats for the store, see if he could get some of the more dietary specific people inside.

If only he could get some competent staff in the kitchen besides himself.

Not that he didn't value having Hinata and Tobio around, they were both very nice kids. Hinata was also pretty great at working the counter. Kageyama...not so much. But they were both really good kids-

“Hey Suga-San?”

Oh, speak of the little devils.

Suga blinked and looked over at a clock on the wall to see he had been on autopilot for nearly an hour, washing tables and ringing up the odd order. It was nearly closing time.

The baker turned around to see both of his workers standing behind the counter with guilty looking expressions

“What's wrong?” Suga asked immediately, moving around the shop to get to them.

Hinata looked at his shoes and made a whiny noise in the back of his throat like he was afraid to answer. His fingers were twisting in the fabric of his apron as he looked to Kageyama to answer for him.

Frankly, that freaked Suga out even more. It was incredibly rare for Hinata to allow someone else to talk for him-especially if it was Kageyama.

The dark haired man gave a heavy sigh before saying, “We were mopping in the kitchen and then dumbass over here-” Tobio dodged a slap from Hinata and continued with a low voice and downcast eyes, “He slipped in the spot I was cleaning and reached out to break his fall or something and ended up tugging down an entire batch of lemon squares onto the floor,” Kageyama sped up his speech when he noticed Suga’s eyes bulge, “But! But we washed them in water and put them back on the tray and then wiped down the floor again, so technically we fixed the problem and it's almost seven, so we should probably head out…”

Scratch whatever Suga had said about them being ‘good kids’.

These little shits were demon spawn sent to Suga to test his patience.

Soon he was gonna break and stuff his face with tea cakes as he sobbed over the disrespect the two showed him.

“You…you put them back?” He frowned.

“Yes.” Both of the males nodded.

Suga swallowed a groan and moved around the two to head back into the kitchen to fix the problem the teens had created.

“You guys can't just put them back!” He shouted over his shoulder, hearing the guilty slow footsteps of them follow, “We run a business! A business where we need to make sure our product is safe for someone to ingest. If we don't, not only could that person get sick-but we could get shut down!”

He stopped in front of the countertop the lemon squares rested on and looked them all over, one by one.

“Guys,” He looked at Hineta and Kageyama, “These are covered in hair and dirt still.”

The duo remained quiet, staring at their boss with wide eyes and a general aura of complete panic.

“I have to throw these away.” Suga said when neither moved to speak.

“But we washed them!” Hineta yelled and Suga found himself between two options of either explaining to him what he did wrong or just let the two go home and get an early head start on prepping for the next day and locking up.

“Go home,” He said, picking up the lemon treats and dropping them into a nearby trash can, “I’ll finish up here since I know you two have English tests tomorrow and I want you to start prepping.”

The two looked at Suga with frowns.

“We could help though-” Hineta started at the same time Kageyama whined (Yes, whined) out, “I wanna help-” Only for Suga to wave them off with a dismissive hand and a shake of his head.

“Get out of here, boys.” He smiled, placing two hands on their shoulders and steering them towards the back door, “I expect a solid B+ from both of you tomorrow.” He told them when they reached the coat rack, “And you both better show up ready to work after school.”

They dived into a round of silence then, Hineta staring at Suga and Kageyama hesitating to slide his hoodie on after removing his apron, holding it in hands.

“Look, I'll be out of here in less than thirty minutes probably,” Suga chuckled, noticing the stares, “You two don't need to feel guilty or anything.”

That sure got Kageyama moving.

The dark haired boy shoved his jacket on, hanging his apron up in a flash and then moving to grab his backpack all in a quick motion.

Hineta moved a moment after, actions slightly slower and hesitant, still looking to his boss with worry.

“Can you...can you promise to text me when you head out?” The boy asked in a shy tone that Suga rarely heard him use-more accustomed to either loud shouts or awkward mumblings. He wasn't usually so…

...vulnerable sounding.

“Yeah,” Suga said back just as softly, “I will.”

He wondered to himself why he was making so many odd promises as his workers packed up their things and headed out the door with short waves.

“You're an actual idiot.” Was the last thing he heard Kageyama mutter before the door shut behind them both with a click.

And so, Suga was left alone with his own confusing and exhausting thoughts.

Thankfully those thoughts distracted him from his chores.

He was on auto-pilot while he mixed in the lemon juice and flour to his lemon squares, allowing his mind to venture off.

He thought back to the man from earlier.

Who the fuck was that? Why was he crawling on the floor? Was someone after him? Where did he come from? Would he come back?

Stopping in the front of the store to lock up and turn off the lights (Not cause he was scared or anything) he skipped back to the kitchen, hoping that the answer to that last question was a ‘no’.

But that man was really leaving an impression in Suga’s mind.

Not only was he odd...but he had a very memorable face.

He was...well, to put it bluntly, Suga had thought he was terrifying and deranged looking-but also kinda familiar.

Leaning back against the counter, inhaling the sweet scent of the lemon squares in the oven, he fiddled either straps of his apron.

He hoped the man didn't come back when he was working a shift on his lonesome.

It was a good thing Asahi was usually around to walk him home.

The man was a total scaredy cat and trembled when in conflict most of the time, but he did look threatening when walking down the streets, tall and looming.

It really sucked that he and Noya had bingo tonight.

At that thought, Suga burst out laughing, shaking a head and scolding himself for letting his worries run wild. He was being ridiculous. It wasn't like the man had done anything wrong.

He had just kind of spooked Suga because he was scared of something else.

Suga frowned, wondering what.

What could get a man to crawl in his knees for cannolis?

‘A man on a diet with a scolding girlfriend’ Suga answered, pulling the lemon squares out and sticking them right into the fridge.

He wiped his hands on his apron and sighed contently when he concluded; the chores were done and he could go home. The bus had left around four sadly, but that just meant Suga got to take a twenty minute stroll as the sun set.

He pulled off his apron and set it on the counter, moving to find his sweater by the door. Slipping it on with a hum, he reached into it’s pocket when he felt his phone buzz from within it.

One-no-tw-three times.

Chikara: hey, when are you getting home

Chikara: suga

Chikara: im gonna actually strangle him

The feeling of wanting to smack his friends via text message washed over Suga like a tidal wave as he scrolled through his phone to see even more unread messages.

Most were from Bokuto and Kuroo, talking about how Ennoshita refused to make them dinner so they ended up ordering Thai food and that Suga should get home soon so he could eat with them.

It was comforting to know he had such warm and friendly people to live with-but also infuriating to know that without him around, they were arguing like five year olds. It sucked whenever Kuroo and Ennoshita got into a fight over small inconsequential things. They were both mostly relaxed people, but for some reason those two were always butting heads, leaving Suga and Bokuto to try and diffuse the situation afterwords.

Suga quickly typed a response back to them all, saying he'd be home in about 20, and then grabbed a few cookies to shove into a pastry bag.

He scrolled through some more unread messages from earlier and stopped to quickly reply to them. About three were from Noya, saying that Asahi won the first round of bingo and that three old ladies were glaring daggers at them. Another message was from his neighbor, Mr. Ukai, asking if Suga could check on his cat while he and his husband were out of town for the weekend.

He told Noya to wish Asahi luck from him, and Mr. Ukai he would love to watch his cat.

A moment later he was finally outside, locking the back door and skipping down the sidewalk, hoping he could get home before dark.

Another buzz from his phone startled him however and he paused to look at the message that had come through.

Hinata-Chan: heyyyyy did u get hom ?!? Pls anser

Shoving away the frown that overtook Suga when he looked at the spelling and grammatical errors in Hinata’s text-Suga replied quickly to the boy’s message, letting him know he was, indeed, on his way home.

Hinata replied nearly a second later;

Hinata-Chan: ok !!! Thx Sugs !!! c u tomoro !!! night !!!

“God, I hope he's studying hard for that test.” Suga mumbled aloud, shaking his head when he looked over the message.

Some parts of it were challenging to read, while all of it made Suga worried for Hinata’s academic career.

The boy was probably going to continue in whatever sport he was always raving about after high school ended, but it was still worrisome that Hinata didn't know how to even spell Tobio’s full name.

Suga couldn't quite remember if it was Tennis or volleyball that Hinata played, but, either way, Hinata was supposedly amazing in it and was very dedicated to what he did. He gave his all and played not only because he was good at it, but because he was passionate in what he did.

Suga wished he could’ve been a part of team where he was always connecting and improving his skills, back in high school. The volleyball team he was on, fell apart after two weeks, the team only consisting of four people (Two of which, always fighting with one another).

Sighing at the memory, Suga made his way down the streets of the city, cutting through the alleyway next to a Eleven-Seven and heading into the lobby of his building after twenty minutes of quiet walking and shuffling feet.

The scent of vomit and bleach hit his nostrils when he walked through the doors and he held back a look of disgust when he saw a janitor scrubbing the carpets. An orange stain was seeping through the floor while the cleaner worked, the scent beginning to take hold while the bleach and Vomit stench fought.

“Everything alright, Risa?” Suga asked the cleaning woman on the floor as he passed her.

She looked up at him, frowning, only to grin when she saw his face, “Oh, I'm having a great day, kid,” She chuckled, “Some poor boy just threw up his lunch though. I would be pissed at him-if I hadn't overheard his pitiful conversation on the phone.”

Suga stopped in his place, looking to her with an expectant gaze. In all the years Suga had lived in the building, he and Risa had steadily became somewhat friends.

And these somewhat friends usually only talked about one thing when they were together;

Gossip.

“What was he saying?” The man asked, hand clenching around the pastry bag he had brought home.

Risa chewed on her lip before sitting back on her legs to say, “I think he was chatting with a friend or maybe a sibling, because he was practically ranting about some guy to them.”

“Poor dude.”

“Mhmm,” Risa nodded and went on, “He was drunk from what I could tell, swaying kinda and slurring his words. He was almost growling into the phone, ‘I can't believe he's seeing her. I can't believe she would start dating him, when I told her all of that crap’. He was in tears by the time I came over to ask him if he was alright and he mumbled out, ‘I was finally gonna tell him’. He ended up throwing up, right here, and then apologizing like he had lit the place on fire.”

Suga’s lips curved into a pitiful frown, “Wow, I feel so bad for the kid.” He said and Risa sighed dramatically,

“It Was honestly so depressing to see the man almost in tears as he said that, and I've seen a lot of people cry-but this boy? Well, he's that one who lives in the apartment at the end of the hall on your floor. You know the one next to the Ukais?”

Suga gave a nod, thinking about the friendly-yet very timid college student named Yamaguchi Tadashi.

“Yeah, well, that poor kid is always so shy and scared looking and I felt so bad when I heard him on the phone, so when he ended up vomiting on the floor I just told him it was fine and to head up to his apartment. I even told the manager that it was some random homeless guy who barfed. Sometimes it's a miracle Mr. Terushima is so cheap, otherwise he'd have bought cameras and had the kid pay for something he hadn't even done intentionally.”

Suga’s heart did a backflip as he heard the woman utter such nice words. How had the universe created such a kind and fair woman like Risa Mori? And how had Suga been given the pleasure and honor of becoming her friend?

“You're such a wonderful person.” He ended up saying, pausing for ten seconds and then blushing he realized what he had let slip out.

Risa didn't seem to care that much and gave a hearty laugh, “Oh shush, you sweetheart. Get into that elevator and let me clean this up now. I've got a lot of work to do tonight.” She waved over to the elevator in front of them and then went back to scrubbing, shaking her head and chuckling ever so quietly.

Suga's feet moved for him, leaving behind his voice until he pressed the button and the doors opened like they were waiting just for him. He finally allowed himself to call out, ‘good night’ to his friend, the door shutting before Risa could reply.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :|


	2. Pad Thai and Mr. Refreshing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, new chapter, and I’ve decided that the direction this story is going in, is that there’s gonna be a lot of drama and action and not as much fluff as you’d expect in a bakery au. 
> 
> I live for angst, so expect that-and also, Yamaguchi is going to be a really important and key character so remember to not just play him off as some innocent bean in later chapters. He knows more than you’d think. Same with Ennoshita!!
> 
> Also, if anyone can name who it is at the end, I’ll give you a lil heart ♥️. Suga, on the other hand, is not going to figure out who he is till next time, and he will also discover more about Lil Yams and whatever drama he’s got himself caught up in.
> 
> I really appreciate anyone who takes the time to read this, and I hope you all enjoy.

The clock ticked away on the wall, counting down the minutes until Suga would have to open up the bakery and begin his day of working all alone. He wished he had the energy and time to look into hiring more people to help out and give him company during normal school hours. 

Sadly, he only had Hinata-chan and Kageyama-chan, and those two were still high-schoolers.

Suga didn't envy them though, they both were in their last year of high school, had after school jobs, and morning practice for whatever sport they were so invested in. 

But working by himself on a Wednesday morning was usually quite lonely. The two boys were probably in their homeroom and all of Suga’s friends his age, were either in their morning classes or working like him.

Sometimes Suga really regretted dropping out of law school. 

Shaking away  _ that  _ thought, he yawned and rubbed at his eyes tiredly.

He had been hustling around the apartment that morning, searching for his keys and bangin pots and pans to get Kuroo and Bokuto up in time. 

The two had recently become something like night owls, getting jobs as security guards at the local science center, earning very late night shifts. They were lucky their shifts were only on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays-but their sleep schedules were all messed up now.

Suga had immediately stepped up as their new alarm clock (Or  _ Mother  _ as Ennoshita had mocked last weekend) and took on the challenge of getting the two up every morning in time for 10 am classes, over the course of the last two weeks.

Ennoshita could always be found in the living room, laughing at him, sipping a cup of coffee, and judging Suga for his kindness.

Sadly, that morning he had been in an even bigger rush, as he, himself, had overslept. 

For almost the entire night, he had stayed up with uncomfortable thoughts, tossing and turning and biting his lip, worrying for the boy who lived across the hall from him. He was so concerned, he had gone to sleep around three and woken up at six, to an empty bed and a guilty heart.

_ *** _

_ “You're late.”  _

_ Suga sighed, hanging up his sweater by the door, before turning to meet the gaze of his roommate. They locked eyes, both raising their eyebrows and giving each other amused grins. _

_ “I know,” Suga replied, glancing from where Ennoshita stood behind the kitchen counter, cooking, to where a dark haired man sat, chuckling at the two of them. _

_ “I see you've been suckered into spending the night again, Keiji,” The baker laughed, stepping forward to drop his paper bag and phone on the counter, “I thought you said Sunday was the last time we’d see you over here, ever again.” He gave a sickly sweet and sarcastic grin.  _

_ “Oh, ha-ha.” Keiji scoffed, keeping his eyes on Suga with a smirk, while chopping up a row of carrots for the stew Suga could see Ennoshita making on the stove. _

_ “Bokuto and him got back together this morning.” Ennoshita commented, shaking a bit of salt into the pot he was stirring, “I came home to find the two of them all cuddled up on the couch together,” He set the salt down and looked at them both over his shoulder, “It was the quietest I’d ever seen Bokuto and the most peaceful this place has ever been with him home.” _

_ “That’s adorable.” Suga grinned, pulling out one of the stools and sitting down beside Keiji. He plopped into the seat with a ‘hmph’ and reached over to pluck a carrot from the pile, nibbling on the end. _

_ “And how were your days? Anything exciting happen?” He asked, swallowing a mouthful of orange. _

_ Keiji brought his knife down on a bundle of carrots as he replied, “I saw one of my classmates attempt to eat a marker,” His mouth turned into a half smirk, “He had a snickers in the other hand, so I assume the two were just mixed up.” _

_ “Or the snickers was just for dessert and that was his whole meal.” Suga giggled behind his hands, carrot chunks nearly falling out from the round of chuckles escaping him. _

_ “And you?” He asked breathily, cheeks tainted red, “What about you, Ennoshita?” _

_ “I went to work after class,” Ennoshita answered, “When I got to the diner, I saw this old woman sitting in a booth with her feet on the table.” _

_ Keiji ceased his chopping to ask a simple, “What did you do?” _

_ “I asked her to put them down.” Ennoshita scoffed, “But, she looked me right in the eyes and proceeded to remove her crocs-“ He stopped and nodded at his friends when they sent him raised eyebrows, “Yes, she was wearing camouflage crocs-and then she took them off to lay her disgusting, crusty, sweaty-ass feet on the table.”  _

_ “What’d you do?” Suga asked, leaning forward on his elbows like a child waiting to hear the end of a fairy tale. _

_ Ennoshita didn’t waste a second to finish his story, “I went to find Iwaizumi, my manager,” He said, “I told him what was going on and he gave me the most exhausted look I’ve ever seen on a person, and asked, ‘Is she sitting in a booth with crocs on?’ To which I nodded, and he said back, ‘Yeah, that’s just Gwen.” _

_ “What the actual fuck?” Keiji blinked, holding his knife with a frown, “He just ignored it? What if you guys get shut down or something? Did she leave? How is that allowed?” _

_ Ennoshita gave a shrug, stirring the pot on the stove a few times before stopping and turning off the heat, “I guess she’s just been doing it for awhile now, and everyone had just given up on trying to control her.”  _

_ “That still doesn’t seem legal, dude.” Keiji pouted, setting down his knife to fold his arms and frown. _

_ “It’s whatever,” Ennoshita shrugged, turning to meet a startled Suga’s eyes, “Now, how was your day? You look exhausted. Those two kids wear you out?” _

_ “No, no,” Suga chuckled, picking at the paper bag he had brought home, “I just checked on Mr. Ukai’s car and got into a conversation with our neighbor across the hall. He’s having a hard time, found him crying on his own doorstep,” He gave a heavy sigh, “He couldn’t get his keys in the door, ‘cause he was so drunk.” _

_ “Should've invited him over for Thai.” Ennoshita offered, using a ladle to raise his own soup up to his lips for a taste, “It should be here soon, we ordered it nearly thirty minutes ago.” _

_ “Are you talking about Yamaguchi Tadashi?” Keiji asked, waving away Ennoshita and taking a bite of a carrot chunk he had chopped up a moment earlier. _

_ Suga turned to him and nodded with a curious frown, “Yeah, you know him? He’s usually so quiet and keeps to himself. I’ve never seen him have company.” _

_ Keiji blinked at him, “Yamaguchi Tadashi? Does anyone not know him?” _

_ An awkward chuckle escaped Suga and he looked over to Ennoshita for help, “Um, besides being our neighbor, I really have no idea how I would know him. Is like one of those social media kids?” _

_ “You’re not a political person, are you?” Keiji said back, answering Suga’s question with even more questions. _

_ “None of us are.” Ennoshita answered for Suga, “I watch the news occasionally of course, but Kuroo, Bokuto, and Suga over here, are totally oblivious to what our government is up to.”  _

_ Suga have a nod, “We could be at war and I wouldn’t even know.”  _

_ He was met with a slightly annoyed stare from Keiji. _

_ “Okay,” The man muttered, “Tadashi Yamaguchi is the son of Ichika Yamaguchi.” _

_ A beat of silence passed before; _

_ “Who?” _

_ Keiji heaved another heavy sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose before saying a simple, “She’s married to that actress you both like, Hana Yamaguchi.” _

_ “What?” Suga shrieked, followed by Ennoshita giving a splutter of excited and shocked mumbles. They both leaned closer to their more politically and socially aware friend, waiting for him to tell them more about the woman in question and her apparent son who lived next door. _

_ “Why didn’t you lead with Hana Yamaguchi?” Ennoshita asked, exasperated. _

_ “Because I assumed you two were more adult and actually pay attention to what happens in our country-not more invested and aware of some actress who’s big role was playing an animated turtle,” He shoved his phone and keys into his pocket with a shake of his head, “I’ll never make that mistake again.” _

_ “Okay-but-wait,” Suga stuttered through his words uncertainty, “How do you know he’s related to both of them? And how did we not know he’s the son of Hana Yamaguchi? Are you two actually friends? And if he’s the kid of some famous big-shots why does he live in a dump like this?” At his last question, he eyes surveyed the room they were in, landing on a wall in the living room that had peeling wallpaper and several water damage stains. _

_ “First,” Keiji held up a finger, “Slow down and breathe,” He help up another, “Second, he gets breakfast everyday at the cafe I work at and has done so, every day, for two years. From what he’s said over small talk and what I’ve been able to piece together; he’s a creature of habit and nearly a hermit in fear of people stalking him and the media.” _

_ “So you aren't besties?” Suga asked with a tone just barely above being mocking. _

_ He was flashed with an eye roll as Keiji continued to say, “No, we are not. I feel bad for him though...like, how you were saying earlier?” A nod from Suga was sent over and he rushed on to say, “He seems so lonely. I only ever see him hang out with this tall blonde guy and some people from that one school, Johzenji at the cafe occasionally. They’re nice to him and everything, but I feel like he doesn’t know how to talk with people-well, except for that blonde one. They seem close. As for why he lives here? I don’t know...” He trailed off, pulling out his cellphone, leaving Suga to assume he had received some sort of notification. _

_ “Oh,” Keiji hummed and looked up at Ennoshita and Suga with a frown, “I gotta run, Konoha’s broken the microwave again.” He scooted his seat back and hopped off, reaching for the leather jacket he had set on the back of the couch behind them all. _

_ “I think you two should be more aware of things that go on around your building,” He said as pulled it on, “That kid’s probably going through something bad right now, and you two are gonna have to watch out for him.” He paused for a second and Suga worried the man was gonna yell at them, before his mouth opened and he said, “Especially since I’m going to quiet on Monday and he’s going to have to deal with one of my irritating old co-workers for all his future breakfasts.” _

_ “Wait-“ Suga yelped, Ennoshita finishing his thoughts with a startled, _

_ “You’re quitting? Why?” _

_ “Bokuto will tell you.” Keiji said simply and made for the front door, “Tell him bye for me please and thank you,” He called over his shoulder, reaching for the door handle and swinging it open. He took a peek down the hall before also yelling, “And that your Thai is finally here.” _

_ Suga watched him disappear from view before sending Ennoshita a puzzled look, getting up from the door to grab the food from the delivery man (“There was a lotta traffic-um here ya go-you paid online already” the man chuckled) and then shutting the door with a polite, “Uh, thanks” in return. _

_ “Okay so apparently our neighbor is famous and Keiji is quitting the job he’s had for nearly two years?” He asked as soon as he dumped the food containers on the counter with a ‘thunk’. _

_ A thoughtful look came over Ennoshita and he nodded back, grabbing his pot of stew and finally putting it away in the fridge for a later time, the chopped carrot pieces going next.  _

_ “Yeah, it’s pretty crazy,” He agreed, turning to the cabinets to grab a few paper plates and napkins, “Can you go get the boys? The food is already room temp by now.” _

_ And Suga complied to Ennoshita’s demand, strolling out of the kitchen and down the hallway connected to it. He passed the first door, recognizing it as his own room. He gave a silent thank you to the universe that he had remembered shut and lock it-to avoid the pranks Kuroo and a Bokuto would’ve most likely thrown at him-and looked at the second door that came up. _

_ It was very obviously Bokuto’s room, the door wide open, exposing a messily made bed, a bright orange and red color scheme, and a desk covered in scattered notes. The most prominent thing that reminded Suga how obviously the room was Bokuto’s, was the numerous phtotos on a cork board, nearly all of which being Keiji. _

_ And with a very quick peek into the room, he realized that both Bokuto and Kuroo were not inside.  _

_ He made his way to the last two doors, both on the opposite sides of each other, and opened the one on the left, registering the one on the right to be the restroom. _

_ “Knock knock.” He smiled kindly, tapping his knuckles on the wooden door before opening up Kuroo and Ennoshita’s shared bedroom. _

_ ‘Poor Ennoshita’ Suga mentally sighed. The man had been forced to move into that room after Bokuto and Keiji had their first...romantic night together, leading to several more nights of passion where Ennoshita would sleep on the couch to avoid having his eyes burned. At least Bokuto and Keiji had privacy though.  _

_ “Suga!” Was yelled at him when the door creaked open and he was met with the sight of Bokuto and Kuroo on the floor, playing what looked like a game of uno. Both were looking at him with bright and welcoming smiles. _

_ “Hey guys, dinner’s here-“ _

_ Both men rushed past him, nearly knocking him over as they ran down the hall on a hunt for food, yelling like five year olds and tripping over their own feet. _

_ The rest of the evening went by quickly, all of them shoving food into their mouths (Ennoshita quietly sipping at his stew on the couch) and talking about their days. Bokuto made sure to voice how upset he was over Keiji saying goodbye when he wasn’t in the room and Kuroo gave a lengthy speech over why they should adopt all the alley cats in the area. _

_ It went on for about thirty minutes before Suga thanked them all for dinner after finishing a bowl of padthai and then made for his room before giving into his own curiosity and asking, _

_ “Do you know why Keiji is quitting?”  _

_ He was met with a look of shock in Bokuto’s face. _

_ “He told you he was actually quitting?” He asked and set down his chopsticks, “I thought he was just,” He rubbed a hand over his face before bursting into a round of laughter, “I thought he was just blowing off some steam. I guess that one customer really got to him…” _

_ Suga was quiet for a moment, Kuroo and Ennoshita both looking at Bokuto with raised eyebrows and piles of questions stacking up in their brains. _

_ Suga decided to voice his own,  _

_ “...Yamaguchi?” _

_ Bokuto stared at him. _

_ “The costumer? Are you talking about Yamaguchi?” Suga repeated. _

_ “I don’t,” Bokuto shook his head, “I have no idea who you’re talking about. I’ve never met the chick Keiji was complaining about so-“ _

_ “He’s our neighbor.” Ennoshita shot in from the couch, apparently tuned out of the conversation, as he had put on the Bachelorette and was just barely hearing their words. _

_ “Oh,” Bokuto said, “What flood does he live on? I don’t think I’ve ever-“  _

_ “He lives across the hall, dude.” Kuroo snorted, shaking his head at his friend and shoving a large amount of food in his mouth, “He’s that quiet one. The one with the cute freckles.” _

_ “Well, now I feel embarrassed and guilty.” Bokuto frowned, scratching at his chin and moving his food around his plastic takeout box.  _

_ Suga didn’t wait for another response, decidedly tired from the day and telling them all, “I’m going to bed now.” And then heading into his room with a sigh. _

_ When he timidly sat on the edge of his bed he stopped and gave a sigh. Spreading himself out on the bed was exhausting, his muscles aching and his head reeling.  _

_ It was going to be a long night. _

  
  


_ *** _

And it had been a long night. 

Suga has tossed and turned all night, in fact. His back was aching again for the third time that week and he was nearly hobbling around the bakery by twelve o’clock.

In fact, he was so wiped out, he was barely acknowledged his patrons, handing them their orders and taking their money in almost a robotic fashion, lacking his usual sparkly and friendly flare.

The words, “Mr. Bakery man, I need more cannolis!” Broke him out of his trance like a smack to the face.

“What-“ he looked up from the counter in front of him to see the same man who crawled on all fours into the shop yesterday.

“Cannolis.” The man repeated, just as urgent as the last time, “I need them. Now if you can, please.” 

Suga nodded, reaching down to the display and pulling out two cannolis hesitantly, “I-um-er-“

The man peered at him curiously before making an ‘oh’ expression, closing his eyes and letting out a long chuckle, “Man, I am so sorry.” He shook his head, “I must have freaked you out yesterday, huh? Maybe I shouldn’t be crawling into shops like that anymore…” He trailed off mumbling before combing back his hair with his fingers, flashing Suga a charming grin, “Anyways, Yeah, I apologize about yesterday-my...friend was after me and I didn’t want him to know I was sneaking off for a treat.”

“Oh,” Suga nodded, “That’s alright I was just kind of concerned...you may have scared some of my customers though.” He giggled, hands placing the two cannolis in a little baggie and handing it over in exchange for a ten dollar bill. 

“Sorry ‘bout that,” The man laughed back, tucking the baggie in his sweatshirt pocket, “Keep the change, ‘kay?”

Suga’s head tilted, noticing the jacket and muttering the words, “Aoba johsai,” under his breath with a frown, hands tightening around the money given to him.

“What was that?” The man asked, looking at Suga curiously, almost piercing brown eyes digging into him.

“Um, nothing,” Suga smiled a smile clearly strained, “So, have a...have a nice day, thank you.”

The man nodded, moving away from the counter and heading for the door, a noticeable skip in his step-as opposed to the day prior when he had been shuffling like an animal-but coming to halt when he reached the exit. He turned back, eyes narrowed and shoulders straight.

“You’re a nice new face, ya know?” He said with the confidence of a man who didn’t care that he was once again attracting the attention of other customers, “It’s refreshing to see someone who isn’t turned off by my loud vibrato,” He went on, “I can’t wait to come back tomorrow and maybe have a chat. You gonna be here around the same time tomorrow?” He stopped and looked at Suga expectantly.

“Sure, yeah. I’m here every weekday from nine to 7:30.” He replied, face flushing slightly at the implications of the man’s words, ever so slightly, before sending him a smile in acknowledgment he was prepared to make new friends.

“Cool.” 

Suga stared at the man who left with a high head and a confident pose, hands on his hips, smile bright and saying the words, “Bye, Mr. Refreshing!” As if they were old friends.

But Suga didn’t care much. It was nice to interact with all of the crazy people in this town. 

“Bye.” 

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


To Asahi; _I have a new friend !!!_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone wants to chat on tumbler, this is me;
> 
> https://asksugathebaker.tumblr.com/ask
> 
> Come ask me about the story


	3. Sugar Cookies and Her Little Koshi

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “What are you-?” Suga’s eyes narrowed, “Stop reading my mind, you jerk! I’ve specifically asked you not to, in the past, at least a dozen times. It’s mean and I don’t like it!” He he jabbed a finger into Asahi’s chest, a pout forming on his lips.
> 
> His friend simply chuckled back, stepping up to the counter in front of them to speak to the receptionist.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow this took a long time to write

The rain was bitterly cold. Sharp too, like a bunch of needles were falling from the sky and piercing Suga’s skin. His hair was soggy and hanging in front of his eyes, dribbling softer raindrops down his nose. The water bounced down his front, drenching his nice button up and ruining any chance he had at looking presentable for the evening. 

He had been so excited to see Asahi, he had just run out of the apartment, leaving behind his umbrella on the counter, where his three roommates sat eating eggs and watching cartoons. Which was very unfair to Suga, as all of them had been incredibly irritating towards him, causing him to delay his departure from home.

Kuroo had been very obviously hinting that he was hiding a cat somewhere in the strictly ‘no pets allowed’ flat, while Bokuto had taken an hour long bath. If that hadn’t been bad enough, Ennoshita had tried to pick an argument with him over the lack of a certain someone never replacing the empty toilet rolls. 

All in all, they had distracted him too much and forced him to leave ten minutes past eight, when his meeting with Asahi was set at eight thirty. The bus had taken off just as he made it the station, leaving him behind to walk nearly two miles around the cold damp city.

He ran down the sidewalk, his feet slapping the pavement hard and his raincoat swishing through the wind. Nearly knocking into woman with hands piled with shopping bags, forced him to skid to the right, jumping around her and giving a polite, “Pardon me!” In exchange for startling her so.

Without pausing for a response back, he hurried on down the street, letting out a content sigh when he glanced at his watch, alerting him he was going to be just on time. He slowed his steps down when he could see the tall building in front of him, wiping a wet hand through his soaking hair, shoving it out of the way to read the sign out front, he smiled. 

“Suga!” Someone yelled from the entrance of the building, gaining his attention quickly. He looked over to a tall man standing in the middle of the automatic doors. There was a distinguishing goatee on the man, allowing Suga to make his way over and give him a friendly greeting.

“Good morning, Asahi-San!” He said, voice weak as he was still catching his breath. Both his hands were clasped together as he bowed his head apologetically to say next, “I’m so sorry about my appearance! I got distracted on my way out and forgot my umbrella-“ He raised his head to look his friend in the eyes, “I hope it isn’t a-“

“It’s fine.” Azumane cut him off, waving a hand at him nonchalantly, “It’s really no problem at all,” He turned to walk inside the building, waving for Suga to follow, “Afterall,” He chuckled when they both hit a gust of warm air from the lobby of the building, “We’re here for you, right? It’s your grandmother-as much as I love her-but still, I wouldn’t be visiting her like this if it wasn’t for you.” 

That made Suga frown.

Asahi was right of course, he wouldn’t be seeing the oldest Sugawara if it wasn’t for Suga himself-but that made him mad for some odd reason. Who would be around for her if he wasn’t there? Or for him if she wasn’t there? Nobody?

It wasn’t like there was anyone else in their family who could help out or see her. Everyone was very much

Gone.

  
  


“Did I say something wrong?”

Suga jumped as Asahi’s worried face came into view, a finger poking him in the shoulder as most likely a way to get his attention quicker.

“No!” He squawked, eyes wide, “I was just-I mean, I was thinking about-about-“

“It’s okay,” Asahi sighed halfway through Suga’s words, setting a whole hand on Suga shoulder like he was an angry guard dog, “Your sister would definitely visit if she could.”

“What are you-?” Suga’s eyes narrowed, “Stop reading my mind, you jerk! I’ve specifically asked you not to, in the past, at least a dozen times. It’s mean and I don’t like it!” He he jabbed a finger into Asahi’s chest, a pout forming on his lips.

His friend simply chuckled back, stepping up to the counter in front of them to speak to the receptionist, “Hello, Lev,” He smiled, placing two hands on the counter, “We’re here to see Mrs. Sugawara.”

The man behind the front desk looked up at them and noticeably brightened when he saw it was Asahi and Suga. His long limbs, smashed down to fit his long body in the chair, went more stiff, as opposed to be spread eagle while he hunched over in his chair.

“Asahi-San!” He shouted happily, looking said man over before moving on to-

“-Suga-San!” His mouth turned into an even wider smile as he sat up in his seat to view the m better, “I can’t believe it's you guys! It’s been weeks since you came by! Oh my god, you have no idea how boring it’s been since you last came. I had to do so much paperwork yesterday, because Mr. Kero slipped in the showers and broke his elbow,” He rushed through his words animatedly, arms waving around as he talked, “Also Yaku’s been on my case ‘cause I accidentally slipped a few patients extra puddings. I think he’s just being an old fart though, honestly, he acts older than most of the residents here. Which is saying a lot, since we’ve got three residents who are over one hundred, and one who’s turning-“

“Lev,” Suga sighed, grabbing the younger man’s attention with the click of his tongue, “Can we have the sign in sheet?”

The receptionist looked at him with wide eyes before his face bloomed a pink tone, “Oh wow!”

He clapped his hands together and bowed low in his chair, “I’m sorry, sometimes my tongue just keeps going and going and going and going and-“

Suga reached down and grabbed the sign up sheet on his own, clicking a pen on the counter and quickly signing his name while Lev and Asahi watched. They stared at him for a moment longer as he set the paper back down and shoved it in Asahi’s direction.

“Um-have a good day!” Lev chirped after them as they slipped on two visitor badges and made for the elevator.

“You too.” Suga called back, stepping into the elevator with Asahi coming in just behind him with a slow trot.

“You know,” The bearded man sighed when the doors closed in front of them, “You could’ve let him finish talking. Lev’s usually got some mad gossip to spill and you just totally gave it up just because you’re a little moody today.”

“I’m not being moody.” Suga frowned. He crossed his arms and then watched as a raindrop fell from his jacket and sank into the carpeted floor beneath them. His clothes stuck to his skin, still damp from his run through the stormy weather, bringing his mood right down with it. It was almost comical how the rain drops on his face looked like tears, when he was, in fact, in such a low mood.

“Yeah, you are.” Asahi chuckled into his hand, reaching behind himself to grab at the support railing attached to the elevator walls. He tapped a steady beat on them and Suga felt his eyes practically tear away from the sight, instead looking to his own hands. His chest felt a tad tight at the memories he had in the old folks home, Asahi springing on even more, as it was usually him to tag along and no one else.

“I’m not sure she’ll remember you.” Suga said as the doors creaked open and they were hit with the cool blast of the AC. It seemed the place was always just a little too cold, although Suga chalked up to be the building not wanting any grannies to overheat in their sleep and die. 

“I’m sure she’ll try her hardest.” Asahi smiled kindly back, taking the first step out and looking back at his friend to make sure he was following.

And Suga did, stepping forward with tight lips, like he was afraid an unwanted comment would slip out. 

“I saw her last Friday and she asked if I could drop ‘Sheime’ off at her book club for her.” He said once he was sure he could talk without scowling, following Asahi down a long, green striped wallpapered hallway. It was lined with the carts of nurses, a few helping some patients walk around, one woman pushing an old man around in a wheelchair towards the restrooms-another handing out trays of breakfast to waiting residents.

“Who’s Sheime?” Asahi asked, stopping slightly to turn and look Suga in the eye.

“I don’t know.”

“Well,” Asahi frowned, “Maybe you should’ve asked.” 

A glare overcame Suga and he couldn’t help the urge to smack Asahi in the head for being so..logical. 

“Shut up,” he commanded, stopping at the end of the corridor and looking at the number and name printed on a door in front of them, waiting for the to come in. 

“Room 45, Sugawara Mei.” Asahi read aloud, arms going slack at his side as he waited for Suga to enter first. He had considered maybe just going in before him, letting Suga avoid the mild panic over debating whether or not to enter the room. 

He quickly decided against that thought once they reached the door though, and Suga raised a slightly shaky hand to knock loudly on the wooden door. A small victory for Asahi, seeing his friend take charge in the moment.

“Obaasan?” Suga called into the room as he slowly opened the door a crack. 

A warm and welcoming voice greeted them, calling out, “Is that my little Koshi?”

Asahi’s face lit up at that, shoving Suga through the door, not able to see the way Suga’s mouth was forced into a neutral position, almost like he was trying to hold himself together as best he could. 

“Hey,” Suga greeted his grandmother, stumbling a bit into the room from Asahi’s push. He regained his footing to walk over to the large bed taking up the majority of the room, sitting down beside it in a stiff uncomfortable plastic chair. 

As Asahi followed after him, sitting down and saying hello to the elder Sugawara-he found himself taking in the sight of his grandmother.

A sickly paleness had taken over her skin, which was also wrinkled with age. Her hair wasn’t very disheveled, already cut short in a hairstyle that reminded Suga of Takada-Senpai across the hall. However, unlike Suga’s old high school teacher (Who started teaching in Suga’s last year) Mei Sugawara’s hair was a light grey, showing her scalp at some angles. 

A tremor ran through Suga’s hand and he felt himself clench down on the arms of the chair hard. His grandmother was, well, not doing great. A quick peek at the chart beside her bed could back that up, showing her low blood levels and her memory loss becoming more and more prominent.

“Where’s Sakii?” Her voice cut into Suga’s thoughts, rattling his mind dangerously as he looked up at her with an open mouth.

“She’s...at school, Baba.” He said, sending Asahi a pleading look for help with his words. 

“Yeah,” Asahi hummed, getting the message quite clearly and adding on, “She’s got a big test today and needs to study as much as she can. You understand, right?” He placed a hand on the older woman’s hand in a comforting manner that Suga could never manage to do.

Mei Sugawara took in the words easily, her mind allowing her to forget the truth of Suga’s sister and instead take in the lie like it was a fact, “She works too hard that girl.” She smiled, thinking about the way her grandchildren were constantly moving and going, always working hard for their futures.

“I know,” Asahi chuckled back, mouth forming a strained smile as he forced out false joy, “But Suga here,” He looked over at his frowning friend, “He’s become friends with some rich kid from Aoba johsai. You know the one with-“

“Why do you call him Suga?” 

Both men looked at her, unsure how to respond. What did she mean? Suga’s nickname had been around since Ashai and him were in Junior high, helping Suga’s mom around the bakery and exploring the woods behind Asahi’s house. 

“His name is Koshi,” She went on, “He was named after my daddy, you know. That’s where he gets that bright grin,” She raised a weak hand to her grandson’s cheek and cupped it softly. He seemed to flinch at the touch, staring with wide eyes at her until she continued to say, “You’re so handsome, my boy. I wish I could see you with that smile one more time instead of that sad frown.”

Suga stared at her hands, sighing at the cold feeling, wishing they could go back to warm ones that would teach him how to properly roll out dough at the bakery and fill the cupcakes with cream. They used to be so precise, so delicate and skilled at decorating the cakes and pastries that they created in the family bakery.

Now, she lay here, weak and brittle and very close to joining her own daughter, leaving Suga all on his own, once again.

A shaky smile was plastered on for her anyways and he tried his hardest to keep it in place while she viewed him. 

“L-like this, Baba?” He asked, voice just above a whisper.

“Perfect.” She set her hand back down on her bed, giving her grandson a soft look, hoping he would continue to look happy after she passed away. She looked over to Asahi, Koshi’s friend who seemed to always be there for him, 

“How are you and that young man you’ve been seeing?” She asked, changing the conversation entirely, hoping both of the men’s moods would improve with a new topic. And it seemed to work, Asahi’s face lighting up at the mention of his partner.

“Great,” He said, “Noya and I just finished moving into this new place in the city. It’s got a pretty nice view the docks.” 

“That sounds lovely.” The woman smiled back, “Are you thinking of getting married any time soon? I would love to see at least one of my grandchildren’s weddings.” She sent a knowing look over at Suga and he surprisingly let out a bark of laughter.

“I get it, Baba-but he isn’t your grandson-“

“He is too,” The woman argued, “He’s mine now, you hear? My grand baby and no one can say otherwise.” She grabbed at Asahi’s hand firmly, and sent him a stern look, “You think of Suga like a brother, correct?” 

Ashai blinked, startled at her words and glanced over at a bemused Suga, who was fixing him with a look that could be read as ‘well?’.

“Of course I do.” He said after a moment, looking back at Mei Sugawara.

“Then you’re my grandson. I have two amazing boys who I love and-“ The bright look in her eyes disappeared and suddenly she stopped talking, her mouth turning into a deep frown. 

“Baba?” Suga sat up straighter in his seat, fixing his feet on the floor as he looked over his grandmother who was clutching at her sheet with a tight fist.

“Where’s my daughter?” She whispered, voice barely loud enough for them to hear, forcing them both to lean close and then jump back in shock at her question.

Suga was the first to speak, scooting back in his chair and nodding his head at the door for Asahi to follow him, “She’s at the store, Baba. We’ll see you later.” He sighed, leaning down to kiss her on the forehead.

“Alright.” She said back, a far off look taking over her and Suga felt himself hold his breath in an attempt to not say anything he might regret.

“Bye.” Asahi waved from the doorway, setting a hand on Suga’s shoulder when he had joined him and sending one last hopeful look towards the woman. 

He got no reply and the door shut behind them.

They made their way back to the elevator, stepping inside and lapsing into silence as they waited for it to drop back down to the first floor. 

“I’m sorry, Suga.” Asahi said suddenly, his arms crossed over his chest and his bottom lip dragged into his mouth. He chewed on it intently, pointedly trying to gain his friend’s attention.

“It’s alright. I can’t say I wasn’t expecting it,” Suga said back, tapping his pant leg in a rhythmic pattern, “The nurses called me last week and said she didn’t know her own name for an hour.” 

“That’s...that’s not good.” Asahi replied, unsure what to say or how to make the situation a little lighter. 

Suga seemed unable to say anything back, leaving Asahi to play around in his own mind, trying to think through the several different ways to express him sympathy for Suga. He knew it was unlikely for the eldest Sugawara to live long enough to actually see a future wedding for him-but if ever did decide to marry Noya, he would surely remember her on that lucky day and set out an honorary seat for her. 

When the elevator chimed around them and the doors opened, he managed to steer both him and Suga towards the front doors, hands shoved into his pockets to grab at his phone. 

“That was an awfully quick visit, guys. Mei in tip top shape, eh?” Lev smiled when they passed his desk, seeming to be in the process of trying to balance three erasers on a staple and a book standing on it’s side.

“She’s getting worse.” Suga said back flatly, stopping at the desk to sign both him and Asahi out, handing over the visitor badges

Lev stared at him, mouth opening wide as he stumbled out the clumsy words, “I-I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to-I wasn’t trying to be-I’m really sorry, I-“ 

He was cut off by a smack to the head, a yelp coming out of his throat as a short man with light brown hair popped out from what felt like nowhere to Suga and Asahi.

“I’m sorry about his idiocy.” The man said and they recognized him to be Yaku, Lev’s boss. “He doesn’t understand how to not say insulting crap.” He sent a pointed look at the tall silverette, who sank low into his seat and poked at his eraser stapler sculpture with the expression of a pouting five year old.

“He’s fine,” Suga said, setting down the pen after signing the sheet, “It’s not his fault my Obaasan’s sick, afterall.” He chuckled and swept at a lock of hair falling into his face, “I hope you two have a lovely day.”

“Bye Suga-San!” Lev shouted from his desk, watching him leave before adding on Asahi’s name as the male followed right after his friend with tight lipped grin and wave.

“Where to now?” Asahi asked as he quickly caught up to Suga. He paused when he noticed the rain had stopped and smiled when he saw Suga hop into a puddle, his mood visibly being raised as they got farther and farther from the building they had just left.

“Well,” Suga chuckled, pulling out his phone and typing in a phone number quickly, raising it to his face, “I have to get to work and have lunch with my new ‘rich friend’ as you so pleasantly said earlier.” 




“So, you’ve never seen Grease?” 

Suga let out a snort, twirling his iced tea once or twice before looking at the man across from him and chuckling out, “No, I have not. I don’t know why you’re so surprised by this, I only-“

“It’s one of the most amazing musicals ever created!” The man interrupted, hands slapping down on the table with exclamation, “Dude, Rizzo is literally me,” A hand waved up to his face and he plastered on a smile Suga could only describe as pretentious and still somehow bubbly, “A troubled teen who thinks they’re pregnant and then ultimately reveals themself to be a total softie and just trying to get by in life.”

“What was that first part?” Suga frowned, only for the other to hurry on quickly,

“And ‘Hopelessly Devoted to You’ is my absolute favorite song! It’s sweet and kind of sad, but there’s so much nostalgia packed into it,” His hands flew around wildly before stopping and patting the table like it was a small poodle, “I used to watch it all the time with my parents.”

Suga’s head tilted to the side as he took a long sip of his drink before saying, “My...friend was a big fan of American musicals and such,” His voice took on a bitter tone, “She was always singing in the car, staying after school for play rehearsal.”

“And that wasn’t something you were interested in?” The man frowned, taking a large sip of the coffee in front of him.

“No,” Suga shook his head, “I never had enough confidence to try out for something-and I probably still don’t. I mean, can you imagine actually singing in front of the entire student body and messing up your words? That would be humiliating.” 

The man hummed, “I don’t know about that. I’ve been playing Volleyball since fourth grade and there’s usually a big crowd in the stands. One time, I tripped on my foot during a serve, fell flat on my face and then ran off the court crying. Nothing is really that daunting anymore.” He finished with pink cheeks and a glare in his eyes when Suga let out a loud laugh.

“Oikawa! How clumsy! I hope you don’t trip on the court nowadays!” He set his cup down on the table in front of them before crossing his legs as his lips held a grin, saying, “When was this, by the way? I hope it wasn’t only yesterday.”

“Oh, shush,” Oikawa rolled his eyes at him, smile still present however, alerting Suga to know he was still messing around with him, “I believe this incident was in ninth year,” He went on with a blush, “So yeah, about six or seven years ago, by my memory.”

“Wait-“ Suga let out a snort, “How old are you? You’re talking like you’re-are you in University?”

“Mhmm,” Oikawa nodded, “I’m in my second year,” He frowned at Suga, “What about you? I’ve never seen you on campus-I mean it’s pretty big, but I assume we would have crossed paths at least once in my two years of going there.”

“I’m not at university.” Suga replied, hands curling around his cup. He sucked in a breath before saying, “I dropped out three years ago.” 

The man across from him paused, setting down a danish he had set to the side in the beginning of their conversation, “Why did you drop out?” He then hurried on to add, “If you don’t mind telling me, of course.” 

“No, no,” Suga waved a hand at him, “It’s alright. I dropped out to take over this place,” He gave a large gesture to the bakery around them, closed while Suga took a lunch break with his new friend, him looking around the place adoringly, “It was my mother’s before she passed. This was all left to me around six years ago.”

Oikawa’s lips turned into a soft smile, sending kind eyes over at the other man, “That’s sweet...I’m sorry for your loss.”

“Thank you.” 

Oikawa nodded respectfully before going on to ask and bombard Suga with questions, “Is it a family business then? Do your siblings and cousins work here too? What about your dad?” 

“I-no,” Suga shook his head, “I don’t have any siblings and I never knew my dad.”

_ That’s a lie. That’s such a big fat lie. _

“But I have a friend who’s very close to me and does the accounting stuff,” He went on at the slight furrow in Oikawa’s brows, “I guess I’d consider him a brother,” he chuckled, “And there’s only two others in our staff. Both are high school students, so they aren’t perfect at their job, but they do alright. You know, despite the fact that they’re constantly getting into fights with each other.” 

“That doesn’t sound good,” Oikawa chimes in, taking a bite of his danish while they gossiped, “Do things ever turn physical?”

Suga let out a laugh and shook his head, “No no, not really. Usually they end up just slapping each other’s arms and backs, and giving the other noogies. Most of the time it’s just them calling each other idiots and complaining about how annoying the other is.”

Oikawa let out a cackle, nearly choking on his food and rushing to take a drink before saying, “I think I know some people like that. I used to help out at this middle school when I was trying to look better for different colleges, and I helped the coach with teaching the kids proper served and positions and stuff,” he listed the tasks on his fingers before smiling and saying, “Anyways there were these two guys who were always arguing with each other-but seemed really close and could pull of this really awesome quick. One of them was kinda my protege, actually.” He set his chin in both hands and gave Suga a grin oozing confidence, “I’m that good.” 

“What’s this protege’s name? I need to look him up and see if you’re lying.” Suga said and the cocky expression on on Oikawa’s face slipped off, quickly being replaced by two wide eyes and an offended open mouth.

“Excuse me? Tobio-Chan is everything he is today because of me, you asswipe.”

Suga let out a snort, shaking his head at Oikawa’s words and dumb looking face, “Mhmm, totally. I’m sure you also taught him your wide array of insane insults.” 

Oikawa gave a loud huff, crossing his arms childishly and sitting back in his chair. “You’re just jealous I have a protege and you don’t.” He said after an intense moment of glaring.

“That’s definitely not it.” Suga said, picking up his empty iced tea cup and tossing it into a trash can by the counter. He scooched back in his chair and kicked at Oikawa’s chair jokingly as he made to flip the open sign back up.

“You know what’s actually hilarious?” He giggled as he pulled the door open and let the outside flow in, “The guy who works here, the serious one, his names Kageyama Tobio. He’s got the same first name as your-“

He stopped as the sound of Oikawa’s chair falling over and hitting the ground echoed throughout the bakery. Turning around, he held out a hand to grab Oikawa’s trash and throw it away, unsure of wether or not to question the crazy look in the other’s eyes.

Luckily, Oikawa addressed it first, standing rigid as he stared Suga straight in the eyes. Actually, he let Suga believe for about ten seconds he was about to be murdered, only to blurt out, “Kageyama Tobio is the name of my protege.” 

  
  
  
  
  


Two weeks after the revelation of the two men, Oikawa sat down to have another lunch with Suga. Not that they didn’t see each other between the dates, as Oikawa seemed to come in around two, every other day for cannolis. They didn’t know how to continue without talking to Kageyama immediately, however, just as they waited for Hinata and him to start their shift at four o’clock, they received a text from the mysterious protege, that said he was going on vacation with his parents for 15 days and that he was sorry for the short notice, but he himself, didn’t even know about the trip until thirty minutes before sending the text.

Suga attempted to call the boy back, after sending a quick text back that that was fine but he had a few questions about something, but the younger boy did not pick up his call.

He reasoned with Oikawa that he must’ve been to busy packing or something like that. Although both knew the ringer didn’t go all the way through, and the most likely thing that happened was that Kageyama declined the call. 

Hinata wasn’t much help either, although he did light up like a Christmas tree when he saw Oikawa in the bakery after their first lunch, immediately running over to greet him and Suga, bombarding them with questions over how they knew each other. 

“Do you know anything about Kageyama going on vacation?” Suga asked once all three of them had stopped and talked things over properly. It turned out Hinata and Kageyama were both still in volleyball and gearing up to win nationals. Or something like that, Suga became quite lost once Oikawa and Hinata started jabbering about the sport like two gossiping birds.

“He said he was going to his parent’s home country,” Hinata shrugged back, busily sweeping the floor while Suga decorated a few sugar cookies in icing at the counter. Oikawa stood next to him, ‘helping’ by stealing sprinkles and holding the cookie in place to lick his fingers free of of icing every three seconds.

“What’s their home country?” Suga asked, steadying a sparkly silver sprinkle into a cookie that looked like a bouquet of flowers, “Did he ever mention it to you?” 

Hinata sent back a nod and leaned the broom back up against a wall as he talked, “His mom and dad are both from Ireland and he’s got a lot of Irish relatives who still live there.”

Suga froze and from the corner of his eye, he noticed Oikawa also stop moving, staring straight ahead at Hinata like he had two heads.

“He’s irish?” Oikawa squeaked out, a handful of sprinkles spilling out from his fist.

“I mean, not biologically,” Hinata hummed back, picking back up the broom to clean Oikawa’s mess, “He was adopted when he was like three, after his parents moved here from Ireland. He speaks Japanese a lot better than they do.” He added in the last part as an afterthought, sitting back down in a chair, despite having his break half an hour ago.

“He’s adopted?” Suga frowned, returning to his work, although still very distracted, “I never knew that.”

“Oh,” Hinata frowned, “Maybe he didn’t want people to know that,” He shrugged and leaned back in his chair, “I only know because his mom gave me a ride home from practice one day and I noticed how odd her accent was. She gave me their entire backstory and stuff, which was really sweet. She’s a good lady.” He stuffed a finger in his mouth and began chewing the nail vigorously, “I really hope that wasn’t a big secret.” He muttered under his breath, “Kageyama will kill me otherwise.” 

“I’m sure it’s fine,” Oikawa said, “I’ve met his dad at a practice before and picked up on the accent immediately. I assume it’s not a secret, and most people are just dumb for not realizing.”

Hinata stared at him, nodding, “Yeah, I guess.” A flicker of alarm went over his face next and Suga watched as he reached into his pocket quickly before relaxing his movements when he seemed to realize he was just receiving a text.

“Hmm,” Hinata set the device down after only a second of reading the message, his fingers tapping against the table, “My friend Yachi, has been trying to get a job for like two weeks and so far no one has even called her back. Do you guys know anywhere looking for extra help?” 

Suga’s eyes widened at Hinata’s words, a large smile overtaking his features as he hastily nodded out, “Yes! I’ve been needing more help in the kitchen lately! Do you think your friend would mind helping out in the kitchen? Can she send me a resume?” 

A look of joy passed through Hinata and he jumped up from his seat, lifting his head up and down in a ‘Yes’ as he jambled out his response, trying to also text Yachi back in an attempt to ask her what she thought.

“Oh my god, thank you, Suga-Senpai!” Hinata beamed, “She’ll love working here and it’ll be so much fun to work with her and you and-oh! It’ll be like a total party even when we’re working!”

“Hold up,” Oikawa cut in, drawing their attention, “You're gonna pay this girl to do exactly what I’m doing right now, when I work for free?” 

“You don’t work here, jerk,” Suga chuckled and stuck his tongue out at him, “You eat my supplies and complain about the air conditioner.”

“It’s too cold and you know it!” 

Suga waved a hand in his direction and moved over to a new cookie to ice, placing the old one on the rack, “Can you give me her number, Hinata?” He called over to the young boy, “I need to talk some things over with her. You said her name was-Yachi?”

“Yep,” Hinata grinned, already typing furiously on his phone, “She’s pretty shy, by the way, so go easy on her, ‘kay? She’s got a pretty bad anxiety disorder.” 

“I’ll accommodate her to the best of my ability.” Suga smiled warmly, finishing up another design while smacking away Oikawa’s sticky fingers, “Asahi gets panic attacks sometimes, though, so I’m not totally clueless on what to do when they happen,” He looked at Hinata and the boy gave him a curious frown, “Yeah, I know, he looks pretty sturdy, but he’s a really anxious guy. Noya is usually the one who helps him through that stuff though, he’s like his anchor.”

“That’s sweet.” Hinata smiled, “I’m glad they have each other.”

“Mmm,” Oikawa swallowed a mouthful of stolen frosting before saying, “My bae told me last week he was glad we were together and that he loved me-but then I spilled milk on his kitchen rug so he told me he wished I was dead and then shoved me out of our apartment and into a bush.”

The two other men stared at Oikawa, unsure how to respond to his story-which quite honestly, had nothing to do with what they were talking about-until Oikawa moved away from the counter and headed for the front door, “It seems I’m needed at the gym, boys,” he waved his own phone in the air, somehow managing to sneak a peek at it while the other two weren’t paying attention and said, “Have a great rest of your day, guys, I’ll see you soon!” He opened the door and stuck one foot out before pausing and turning to Suga, just as he did two weeks prior, “If some guy comes in here ever, looking for me, can you tell him I’m your cousin and I’ve never bought anything?” 

Suga’s mouth flapped open and closed like a fish, staring at Oikawa like he was a ghost, “I’m-I’m sorry? Wha-“

“Thanks, Mr. Refreshing!” The man called behind him and the door slammed shut, giving Suga a very large dose of Déjà vu of the earlier weeks that passed where Oikawa would stroll inside, grab a cannoli, make an odd comment to Suga, give him a larger than necessary tip, and then slam the door on his way out. Suga still wasn’t sure if he did that on purpose or not.

“So, should I run the counter or-“

“Nah,” Suga shook his head over at Hinata, who was still sat in his chair relaxed, “You get to clean the bathroom today,” He gave a large warm smile to which Hinata groaned and stomped off into the back, grabbing a mop and bucket from the supply closet as he went.

Hearing the sounds of Hinata grunting loudly and the plop of the mop on tile from the front of the store, Suga flicked up the ‘Open’ sign and sat down on a stool behind the counter, pulling a crossword puzzle out as he waited for people to trickle in. 

He flipped to a random page and settled on one that read ‘To love someone’ at the top. He sighed contented as he found words like ‘rose’ and ‘partner’ quite quickly. A customer or two entered around three, causing him to stop and ring up their orders, but ultimately he went back to it after only three minutes, straining his ears to hear what Hinata was doing, and smiling when he hears the boy still scrubbing away at a few pots in the kitchen sink.

However, just as he reached the last word ‘Cherish’ on the crossword, the bell above the door chimed, followed by someone entering the shop with the clip clip of their heavy sounding shoes. 

Suga set his pencil down, eyes still scanning for the word intently, just as-

"So you're the guy who's been selling my client cannolis during training week?"

Suga looked up from his crossword puzzle with an unimpressed raised eyebrow. He looked the man in front of him over and immediately blushed at the sight of his pouting lips and puffed up chest.

"Yeah," Suga nodded and set his paper down, red faced, "What's it to you?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can’t wait to start writing the romance  
> 💕🌸✨👽


	4. Gummy Dinosaurs and Milk Runs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ~~~~A smile erupted onto Suga’s lips at Daichi’s words and he felt himself sit up straighter on the rickety stool he was perched on, “I didn’t realize I was saying something so controversial, I’m sorry,” He replied and leaned over the counter to ask next, “Would it be okay if I-like-gave you my number as an apology?”~~~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We finally get to see our first real interaction between Yamaguchi and Suga!
> 
> Also behind the scenes we got see Suga have a little chat with Daichi.

“Let me get this straight,” Kuroo deadpanned, draped over the couch leisurely and looking at Suga in awe with a gaping mouth, “A guy came into your bakery today, yelling at you about that Oikawa guy-and you ask him out because he’s got great legs?” 

A jittery twitch went up the baker’s leg and Suga couldn’t help the bright grin that spread across his lips, “Yeah,” He smiled, eyes dropping down to the small slip of paper in between his fingers, “He gave me his number so…”

He trailed off, ignoring the snort that escaped his roommate and thought back to earlier that day when Sawamura Daichi had strolled into his shop with an angry stance and two narrowed eyes. The look would have been threatening to most, however, Suga couldn’t help but stare at the man’s sculpted thighs and chiseled jaw line, thinking of how absolutely gorgeous the man had been.

“And he’s a trainer at that gym across the street from you? You guys haven’t met before now?”

“Nope.”

“That’s probably bullshit,” Kuroo snorterd, licking a cookie that seemed to materialize in his hands, “I bet you’ve passed each other on your way to work at least once. The chances otherwise are severely improbable.”

Suga eyed him quietly, crossing his legs and leaning back into his seat with a frown, “Those are some awfully big words there, Kuroo. You sure you know what they all mean?” 

“Shut the fuck up.” The man cackled, kicking himself up from the couch and moving into the kitchen, “You’re a dick and we’re out of milk,” He said once he reached the fridge and pulled open the door to stare into it with a frown, “Can you go and grab some at the corner store?”

Suga looked at him over the back of the couch, two legs spread wide open like he was doing the splits to sit comfortably, “Are you kidding me?” He groaned, “Why can’t you get it? You’re the one who drinks all of it. You never share with me.”

“I thought you loved me, Suga-San.”

Said male sat up from the couch and gave a slow stretch before turning to Kuroo once again to say, “Fine, I’ll be back in ten-but make sure you fold the laundry on your bed, or else we’ll be having words.” He moved to the front door and grabbed his sweater off the hook, tugging it on.

“Thank you,” Kuroo called back just as Suga shoved his wallet and keys into his pocket, both objects shoving against his phone, making his pocket grow stuffed with all the materials within. He grabbed the door’s handle and opened the door wide, stepping out into the hall and closing it behind him with a sigh. Hopefully, Kuroo wouldn’t accidentally burn the apartment down while he was gone. The man was quite clumsy though, so who knew what could happen without Suga there to supervise. 

Once when he, Ennoshita, Bokuto, and Keiji were all on a fun trip to the national museum of Japanese history,-Kuroo had made the dumb mistake of trying to cook himself spaghetti on the stove all alone-only to burn it and sat fire to two dish towels and a cooking pot. 

It seemed Kuroo didn’t know how to take care of himself and needed constant help when in the kitchen-luckily, Suga wasn’t going to be gone for that long this time and it was very probable that Kuroo would stick strictly to a bag of corn chips and lie down on the couch for twenty minutes while lazily taking notes from his textbooks.

Suga bit at his lips and hummed, turning away from his front door to walk down the long hallway to the elevator, a slow pace in his steps.

He did stop however when the door across from his opened up and a lanky male with dark greenish hair popped out in front of him.

“H-hello!” The boy greeted, visibly startled by Suga’s presence, and inching closer to his front door while the two stared at one another.

Suga gave a smile back, silently cursing at himself for causing the other boy’s anxiety, “Hi there,” He said with as much positivity and kindness he could shove into a sentence, “Yamaguchi-Kun, right?”

“That’s me, yeah,” The boy nodded, hands clutching at his jacket sleeves and shifting around on his feet, “And you’re Sugawara-“

“Call me Suga!” 

Yamaguchi jumped at the sudden shout, back touching against the ugly flower print wallpaper behind him as he stepped back. He seemed to be a very anxious person, Suga noticed, cooling down his excitement in exchange for a calmer tone, “I mean-I prefer it when people call me Suga. All my friends call me that.” He punctuated his words with a grin, fingers moving to button up his sweater to distract himself.

“Oh-okay.”

Suga looked up from his jacket and gave another bright smile to the boy, “Awesome!” He watched Yamaguchi glance towards the elevators and kicked himself for distracting the boy so much.

“I’m on my way to the little corner store on main,” He said and began to move down the hall, Yamaguchi following after him with two slow feet, “I need to grab some milk and I think we need more toilet paper.” He pushed the down button for the elevator and looked back to Yamaguchi as they waited for the doors to open, “Do you go through a lot of toilet paper? How many roommates do you have?” 

Yamaguchi’s face erupted into blushes at Suga’s words, near stutters coming out as he answered, “I-I don’t think I go through too much toilet paper!” He waved his hands in front of his chest and Suga felt himself bite his lip to keep from chuckling at the look of horror on Yamaguchi’s face, “I-I don’t have any roommates after all!” The younger boy finished, hands twisting his sleeves around his wrists once again.

“How do you not have any roommates?” Suga frowned.

The rent in the building was nearly two grand a month and most of the people who lived there were college students who could only work part time jobs and had at least two roommates. The Ukais seemed to be the only exception to that, both of them with well-paying jobs (Not too high, not too low) and both past their years of being students. 

Suga also qualified in that category, not still in school, and working full time at a bakery he owned and managed on his own. He was, however, still in a lot is debt and needed to live with the three other men to stay in the building.

So how was-

“My family has a lot of money. They kinda pay my rent for me.”

_ Oh yeah. _

Yamaguchi was the son of two of the most influential people in Japan. Funny how fast Suga forgot about that.

“That sounds nice,” Suga hummed as the doors to the elevator dinged open and they stepped inside, “So what about college? Are you pursuing acting or something? Music?”

Yamaguchi turned to Suga with a raised eyebrow, “Why would you assume I’d go into the arts?”

“My friend Keiji told me that one of your moms is an actress,” Suga shrugged back, pressing the button for the lobby, “But, I’m assuming that you’re not interested in pursuing things in the same field as her-from that look on your face.”

The prior look on Yamaguchi’s face vanished at that statement, being replaced by a pink blush and a tiny smile, “Yeah,” He chuckled, “You're right. I don’t like all that publicity stuff my mom has to do and talking in front of a large group of people scares me,” He made a clicking sound in his throat before glancing at Suga, “And um-I kinda already knew you and Keiji were friends.”

It was Suga’s turn to send a raised eyebrow and questioning lips over to Yamaguchi.

“I-I mean-“ Yamaguchi yelped, hurrying on with his words quickly, “I’ve seen Keiji and that guy that looks like an owl go into your apartment before-so I kinda just assumed you knew him-the owl guy being your roommate and all.” He let out a nervous laugh, hands squeezing at the fabric of his jacket and eyes darting down at his shoes.

“The owl guy’s name is Bokuto,” Suga said after a quiet moment, “Also, um, Keiji quit his job. So uh, if you were wondering where he’s-“

“I assumed that was the case.” Yamaguchi interrupted, hands twisting together around his sleeves, “It’s been about two weeks since I last saw him and I overheard a few of the other baristas gossiping about his ‘new fancy job’ all jealous-like,” He gave an awkward pause and bigathis lips before asking, “Where’s he at now? Why’d he leave?”

“He’s been working at a real estate agency in the city,” Suga answered as the doors opened and they entered the lobby, “It’s real nice and fancy. He’s gotta wear a tie everyday-“ He stoped talking when they both reached the front doors, himself turning to ask, “Where are you headed? Same direction as me?”

“I’m going to the corner store too,” Yamaguchi replied, picking back up his pace and allosingSuga to catch up with him, “I need to pick up some eggs and rice.”

Suga gave a loud hum, acknowledging Yamaguchi’s words with a nod and shoving down a shiver as the cool fall air flew around him, the sky above, grey like it was threatening to rain.

“But also,” He pulled his jacket right around his body, “As to why he quit,” He gave a defeated sigh, “He won’t really tell us anything past, ‘It’s because of a certain customer’. He won’t even go further into detail with Bokuto, his boyfriend.” 

Yamaguchi remained quiet after Suga spoke, eyes drifting around the sidewalk and hands shoving into his own pockets to escape the cold. He held a look of discomfort, awkwardly walking down the street while he tried not to look over at Suga.

“Did I say something wrong?” Suga asked after it was too quiet for too long, sending Yamaguchi an honest frown.

“N-no!” Yamaguchi shook his head and waved two hands at Suga, trying to explain his actions and awkward looks, “I just-he wasn’t talking about me right? I really don’t want to be the reason he quit his job! If he feels uncomfortable around me I can find somewhere else to go for breakfast, okay? You can tell him that and he can-“

“You’re not the reason, Yamaguchi-Kun,” Suga laughed as they turned around the corner and skipped over to the crosswalk, “In fact one of the few reasons why he said it was hard to leave that place, was that he’d miss seeing you.” 

“He really said that?” Yamaguchi asked in disbelief as they finished successfully crossing the street and headed towards the shop.

“Of course he did,” Suga answered, “I would feel the same as him if I were in his position,” He opened the door to the store and flashed the younger male a grin, “You’re a sweet kid and I like talking with you. I can imagine he feels the same way.”

Yamaguchi’s eyes widened, another round of pinkness taking over his face as he ducked his head, following Suga into the shop with a silent grin.

“Back to earlier,” Suga carried on with the conversation, grabbing a bag of gummy candies from the candy aisle and steering Yamaguchi out of the way of a young couple who were making their way out of the shop, “What are you studying in school?”

“I’m pursuing a bachelor’s degree in elementary education.” Yamaguchi answered, grabbing a bag of Dino gummies as the exited the aisle and headed for the milk and eggs section.

Suga gave a nod, reaching into the fridges to grab a carton of 2%, “That’s interesting. Ittetsu Ukai, next door to you, is a high school teacher. He’s always going on about how disruptive his kids are-he give you any tips?.”

“I-I’ve never spoken to the Ukais before.” 

Suga glanced at him curiously, “Really? How long have you lived in the building?”

Two anxious hands began to twist the fabric of Yamaguchi's sleeves, resulting In Suga coming to the conclusion that it was a nervous habit of his.

“Like...three years I think.” Yamaguchi said after he distracted himself with his sleeves and a carton of eggs, “I don’t really...go out a lot though. I usually just go to the cafe for breakfast and then school and after that, head home.”

“Yamaguchi!” Suga chided, snatching up a thing of toilet paper, “You need to come to the housewarming party my friends are throwing in two days. You can, like, meet some more people-in fact!” Suga gave an excited clap of his hands, “Guess what happened today? I met a new person! He’s got great legs and I got his number.” 

“Wait-What?” 

Suga let out a noise that sounded similar to a squeal and whirled around to look Yamaguchi in the eyes as he told him the story of earlier that day, “Alright, so I met this guy today and he was really mad at me because he’s been training this one bitchy guy I’ve been selling cannolis to-and like, apparently he’s supposed to be dieting and training hard for this upcoming volleyball match of his-that’s the not the important part of the story,” Suga waved around a hand, “But anyways, he came in all angry when I was doing a crossword puzzle and started arguing with me over it all, until I was like-”

  
  
  
  





_ “I’m sorry, can you repeat whatever you were saying?” Suga hummed, tapping his fingers against the countertop, “I wasn’t listening.” His eyes trailed over the man in front of him and he lost out a smile he considered to be his most charming. It didn’t seem to help the tension. _

_ A vein popped out of the man’s forehead, his face going red with anger as Suga lazily looked him over and let his eyes rest on the man’s crossed forearms. _

_ “I’m trying to ask you to stop selling things to Oikawa Tooru,” Daichi grumbled, sticking a finger out as he talked, “It’s-he has a really big game soon and I don’t want him to mess it all up because he spent all of the time he was supposed to be training-eating cookies and gossiping with his new best friend.” _

_ Suga frowned at that, “Are you jealous of the time I've been spending with him? You aren’t dating, right? I mean, I think he told me has a boyfriend-but you don’t really seem like the type to-“ _

_ “God no!” Daichi shouted, a look of complete horror overtaking his features. He waved his hands in front of his face and nearly made a gagging noise as he cut Suga off, “Please never assume I’m dating Oikawa, ever again,” He demanded before adding on a huff of, “That was so rude.”  _

_ A smile erupted onto Suga’s lips at Daichi’s words and he felt himself sit up straighter on the rickety stool he was perched on, “I didn’t realize I was saying something so controversial, I’m sorry,” He replied and leaned over the counter to ask next, “Would it be okay if I like, gave you my number as an apology?” _

_ The man across from blinked, eyes wide and face still red-although Suga wasn’t sure if that was still from rage-or if he was becoming flustered. Suga, himself, felt quite warm, as he had never been so forward with a person before. Was this a mistake? Daichi Sawamura looked like he thought so, consolation frozen at Suga words before squeaking out-in a voice, much different to earlier; _

_ “Only If I can give you mine first.”  _

  
  





  
  


“It’s not that big of a deal,” Suga sighed once they finished paying and were walking back from the corner store, to their apartment building, “I just asked a guy for his number and now I’m gonna take him to the movies or something.” He went on, “Do you think he’d like to see IT 2?”

Yamaguchi stared at Suga quietly, shifting the paper bag on his hip as they moved down the street and asking a simple, “But what if the date doesn’t go well?”

“Then I’ll gain a new experience,” Suga answered with a hum, ripping open his bag of gummies to munch on, “Plus, I don’t think it will. He’s really hot, first off, so-not to sound too shallow-but I’d honestly be fine just admiring his legs as he talked and then not see each other again,” Yamaguchi sent him a disapproving frown, until Suga added on, “But seriously, he seems like a good guy. He really cares about his clients from what I’ve seen. Plus, I got a pretty good vibe from him.”

They moved on down the street, Suga ranting about Jurassic Park after awhile with Yamaguchi listened patiently and accepted gummy candies from the other male as he talked.

“So why do you like dinosaurs so much?” Suga asked once they were back at their building and trudging through the warm lobby.

“What?” Yamaguchi frowned back, a shocked look over taking his face, “Why would you think I-“

“You have a Dino print jacket on, a little dinosaur keychain on your wallet, and you just bought a pack of gummy ones,” Suga explained, “It wasn’t that hard to notice.”

“Oh,” Yamaguchi hummed, “I have a-“ he paused for a second cleared his throat, “I have this friend who really likes them. He bought me the keychain and um-he just lent me the coat,” Hd fingers twisted around the sleeves and he pulled the fabric tight, “I’m gonna give him the candy when I see him again, ‘cause it’s been three weeks since we last talked.”

“Why so long?” Suga asked, popping a gummy in his mouth

“Well,” Yamaguchi scratched the back of his neck, frowning over his next words, “He kinda started dating this one friend of mine about two months ago and they uh-never told me.”

“Ouch.”

A snort escaped Yamaguchi’s mouth at Suga’s commentary, and he quickly hurried on to tell his story as they got into the elevator.

“Yeah, so I was totally in the dark until two weeks ago, when she told me what was up, by sending me a picture of them kissing,” A bitter tone took over his voice at that, startling Suga so much he was forced to look over and check to make sure he was still talking to Yamaguchi and not someone who was as tart as a lemon. Like a certain cannoli loving weirdo he knew.

“We aren’t friends anymore,” Yamaguchi went on, a slightly scary smile spreading over his lips, “But the good news is that he broke up with her last night, after finding out how insane she was.”

Suga nodded at the younger boy’s words, taking in what he said with a slight frown and trying not to ask too many questions until the rant was over and done with so he could speak all he wanted to.

“You know,” He said with a small smile, “I don’t want to sound too,” Words rolled around in his brain, trying to come up with the perfect one, “Presumptuous.” He decided on, taking a deep breath and looking Yamaguchi in the eyes as he next said, “But, I can’t help asking-Do you generally...talk to people like this? Just, spontaneously? You seem like the kind of person who’d usually tell me to leave you alone and walk to the store on your own.”

Yamaguchi looked at him, shifting on his feet and rubbing the back of his neck, “I mean, you’re not entirely wrong. Usually I’d make up an excuse like my oven was still on or I had an emergency doctors appointment to get to, in order to avoid talking to people,” His fingers went back to his sleeves, “But I guess not having a face to face conversation with anyone for over two weeks, can make you a little desperate.”

The doors opened then and Suga moved his eyes from Yamaguchi to the ugly carpet on the floor that was in good need of a cleaning, stains lining it and dirty scuff marks covering it’s design. He let his eyes go back to Yamaguchi-who was already walking out and down the hall-and then let a thought bloom back into his head.

Did Yamaguchi ever have company? Suga had never seen anyone enter his apartment besides the young boy himself, and could never hear any noise from Yamaguchi’s. Where were Yamaguchi’s moms anyways? What would he eat for dinner? Did he know how to cook?

“Hey!” Suga yelled down the hall, startling Yamaguchi so bad he dropped a gummy and looked back at the baker with wide eyes.

“Do you want to come over for dinner?” Suga asked, voice dropping back down to a normal level as he stared at the younger male. He didn’t know how to move the conversation along anymore and needed the other to reply so he could get them both inside and start prepping for dinner.

Luckily a smile bloomed across Yamaguchi’s face.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  


“I would love to, Suga-San.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess what’s gonna happen at Asahi and Noya’s housewarming party 
> 
> It’s gonna be crazy.


	5. Brownies and Bitches With Sisters

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey I don’t think I ever mentioned this but I mixed around everyone’s ages. 
> 
> Suga’s like 25 and Daichi and Asahi are 24.  
> Everyone else is around 22/23  
> Except Kageyama, Yachi, and Hinata who are like 18.  
> The Ukais are in their mid thirties

> Dinner went late into the night, allowing Suga to over and over again, tell the exciting story of how he had gotten Samawara Daichi’s phone number, going into full depth over the man’s gorgeously toned arms. Sadly, Keiji was busy at work that night, something that Yamaguchi was visually upset about-but they still had an entertaining evening. 

A game of Uno was played, Ennoshita beating them all at least three times, until Yamaguchi stepped up and won their last round. Suga was almost certain the boy had never been to a gathering with people as insane as Bokuto and Kuroo, but believed the event went quite well. 

Yamaguchi didn’t even look that scared.

Although he was pretty quiet and only offered answers to questions that were asked directly to him. He seemed like a pretty antisocial person, although not because he wanted to be, but rather that he was too nervous to be anything else.

“You can come over whenever you want.” Suga told him when the dinner came to an end and the others began to clean up the dining room table and kitchen, while Suga escorted Yamaguchi to the front door.

Yamaguchi looked at him with wide eyes, “Oh,” He said, mouth melting into a smile, which then he hid behind his hands and ducked his head, “That’s very kind of you, Suga-San,” He ran a hand through his hair swiftly, “I-thank you. And um, tell your roommates I had a nice time.” He gave an awkward shuffle to the door, flashing Suga a smile.

“Mhmm, you can call them Kuroo and Bokuto and-“ He paused as the door opened and the hallway came into view, “Senseis!” He shouted happily, nearly tripping over a startled Yamaguchi as he ran out into the hall to greet the Ukais, “You’re back from your vacation! How was it? You both look tan! Did you go to the beach a ton? Is America as messed up as we thought?” 

The Ukais blinked, both in beach shorts and arms stuffed with suitcases as the brunette one tried to shove his key into their door. They looked at Suga like he was a hyper five year old, watching him nearly hop up and down as he asked a series of questions.

“Uh,” The blonde dragged out his words, a lit cigarette hanging from his lips, “It was real nice, but we’re pretty exhausted from the whole trip-“

“Oh!” Suga yelped, cutting the older man off and grabbing the keys from the other’s hands, “Lemme help you with that,” He quickly unlocked the door for them, “I’ll let you get some rest then-but I think you should both know-“ He tossed the keys back over (Which the couple had to jump to catch) and then gestured to the confused looking Yamaguchi behind him.

“This is Yamaguchi Tadashi-he said he’s never had a conversation with you before so-“

“Are you new to the building?” The brunette Ukai asked as his husband shuffled his way inside past him and loaded all of their bags into the house.

“No,” Yamaguchi said quietly, face growing slightly pink, “I lived next to you guys for um, a few years.”

The man in front of the two young adults gasped, a guilty expression overtaking his face as he jerkily looked between the two, almost like he was trying to see if either of them were lying to him. Eventually he must’ve come to the conclusion that yes, he heard Yamaguchi right and they were being one hundred percent honest.

“I’m so sorry!” He ended up saying as his husband stuck his head out the door to listen in, “I just don’t think we’ve ever had a conversation or anything or-“

“I don’t really go out of my way to talk a lot.” Yamaguchi hummed, arms going behind his back as his legs bashfully held still, “I do know that I’ve seen you two, once or twice in the-.”

“You’re that one kid you threw up in the lobby a few weeks ago!” The blonde Ukai grinned, pointing out a finger and taking a long drag from his cig.

Of course, his tone and mood didn’t seem to match Yamaguchi’s reaction. The boy practically squished in on himself as he took in the words, hands wrapping and unwrapping on his own tight skin.

But, the others seemed to pick up on his uncomfortableness, Suga looking at him heavily and stepping back towards him and the blonde receiving a slap on the shoulder from his husband in punishment for his careless words.

“I’m sorry-“ The man mumbled once he was able to read to the moment easier and take in the tension in Yamaguchi’s shoulders, “-I probably shouldn't have brought that up,” He heaved out a yawn, “I think that’s probably ‘cause we’re so tired though.” He pulled his partner into the house with him and gave the two boys a wave, “Goodnight nonetheless, boys. I hope you sleep well.”

Yamaguchi and Suga called back a parting, only to find themselves standing in the hallway on their own. Yamaguchi was still clutching at his arms awkwardly, looking down at his feet.

“So, um,” Suga muttered, “Now you know them.” He flashed Yamaguchi another bright smile and the boy slowly looked back up at him, chewing his lip.

“I’m sorry. That probably wasn’t the best way to introduce you to them,” Suga tapped his fingers on his watch and pointed at their front door, “It’s like midnight and they just got back from a long trip, and we’re all tired so obviously it wasn’t going to go awesome. I should have just waited ‘till morning or some other time to introduce you.”

He paused and waited for Yamaguchi to offer any commentary, wondering how the boy felt, or if maybe it hadn’t been as bad as he thought. The scrunched eyebrows Yamaguchi sent him were enough answer.

“It’s fine.” He said, moving over to his door and not sparing another glance at the friendly baker.

“See ya soon.” Suga called, watching the other open his door swiftly. He felt a tug at his lungs when he got no response, leading to him saying, “And you can come to my bakery whenever you want, Yamaguchi-San. I’m always there, and love to talk with anyone who comes in.” 

Yamaguchi paused, about to close his door, before his eyes fluttered up to Suga’s, “Good night.” He sighed, and for once, Suga could see a genuine smile cross his lips. The door shut.

  
  
  


The next day Suga worked from eight am to six o’clock at night. He wasn’t surprised of course by that, he’d spent hours into the night, working at the shop. He once prepared a wedding cake for ten hours straight, creating nearly four different ones-before settling on a very immodest, three layered, strawberry champagne cake with gold dusted flowers made from modeling chocolate. He could thank Ashai and Noya for some of that though, they did a great job cutting out fondant for him.

But, what was very surprising to him, was the weird appearances of people he knew. 

Firstly, Keiji stopped in and gave him an old pan he had borrowed a few weeks ago.

And secondly, Hinata and Kageyama showed up ten minutes early for their shift (which made him wonder if they had skipped their last class-although he did hug the taller boy since he hadn’t seen in him so long) and he received the surprise of his life when he saw Kageyama in a very elegant looking kilt. Hinata seemed to be having a gay panic, but Suga couldn’t really focus on that, as twenty minutes into their shift, around four thirty, Noya showed up with a fiery looking grin.

That was never good.

“Noya-San?” Suga greeted, looking uncertainty at Kageyama who stood beside him at the counter, wiping away sugary stains. The boy gave him an oblivious shrug back. How unhelpful.

“Heya Suga! ‘Sup Kageyama?” Noya smiled wide, slapping a hand down on the counter and rattling a jar of twisting lollipops set beside him. Kageyama ignored him.

“To what do I owe this surprise visit?” Suga hummed, steadying the jar with one hand, and continuing his cash register work with the other, “Did you and Ashai decide to treat yourselves to some brownies for tonight?” He pointed down to a rack of the chocolate treats through the display case, “Hinata helped me make that batch.”

“Nope,” Noya grinned back, popping the ‘p’ at the end, “I came here to tell you that Asahi’s parents are coming to the housewarming party tomorrow and they’re inviting some fancy business men that could really help Asahi with improving his marketing company. Maybe even some potential clients.”

Suga brightened up at the information, first preparing for some sort of bad news when Noya first entered-judging from Noya’s insane little grin-but he soon let a peaceful expression come over his face, “Well, that’s wonderful,” He chuckled and shut the cash register, nudging a quiet Kageyama to the side as he bent down to open the display case and wipe at the inside of the glass, “I’m happy he’s getting the opportunity,” He poked his head up a bit, “But what does this have to do with me? You look like you want to ask me something.”

“I was just about to get to that,” Noya replied, leaning over the counter, “But I do want you to know that there’s gonna be some people you don't know. So, don’t panic. Also can you try to get Kuroo and Bokuto on their best behavior?”

With a snort, Suga stood back up straight, “I’ll try-but Keiji will be there to control them. Also I’m pretty sure Ennoshita threatened to murder them if they tried to pull any pranks on you guys so-“

“Excellent!” Noya said, rushing on, “Also-this the part where I’d like to ask for a favor-“

“What?” The baker groaned, moving back around his coworker to pick up a platter of sugar cookies he had laid out on top of the display case.

Noya chewed his bottom lip quickly (Reminding Suga is a certain neighbor) and looked at the counter before saying, “If anyone-well, Asahi’s parents talked to us on the phone the other day, talking about how the last time they saw you, they remembered how sweet you were, and how nice your mom was, and that your sis-“

Suga dropped the plate, ceramic shards flying everywhere, accompanied by crumbs and red sprinkles that reminded Suga too much of drops of blood. He stared at the floor, hands shaking and heart pounding loudly in his chest. 

Noya’s words became almost like an echo, floating around his brain, voice fluttering around like birds with broken wings. They squealed and screamed, letting out noises that could remind someone of a pig about to be slaughtered by the hungry wolf.

_ We’ll always be best friends, right Kiyoko? _

Was he talking? 

Where’d Noya go?

_ Of course, Koshi, no one could ever take your place _

Was someone talking to him? He couldn’t think clearly for a second and felt light headed, nearly nauseous as well. 

Perhaps he had eaten something bad. 

_ Mother always seemed to cook everything perfectly though. _

Perhaps he didn’t like the way Noya was leading the conversation. 

“Suga-San?” 

He looked up to see the other two staring at him, Hinata now also joined to the group, a broom in his hand. They all wore scared expressions, pardon Noya whose lips were turned into a guilty frown.

And Suga would have yelled at his friend for bringing up a topic he never wanted to discuss ever again-for as long as he lived-but in that moment, he saw the scared expression on the two teens in front of him and found himself letting a false smile cover his face, “Sorry about that, boys,” He laughed and took a step away from the pile of sharp shards, “I guess I zoned out for a second.”

“That’s okay.” Hinata replied, already sweeping up the mess, although the way he avoided Suga’s eyes made it clear he didn’t feel what he said, “I zone out all the time at school,” He rambled on, shoving the mess into the trash can, “Kageyama does too, right Kageyama-Kun?” He looked to his friend, waiting for an answer.

He got a stare back. 

Kageyama’s eyes moved from the newly dirty ground and then to the rest of the people around him, a furrowed brow resting on his face.

“Do you really have a sister, Suga-Senpai?” He asked timidly, fingers moving in circles around his own palms like he was cutting his words into his skin.

The breath in Suga’s lungs caught and he heaved out a long laugh before coughing out, “I don’t, Kageyama. Noya was just making a silly joke!” He gave a bright smile, eyes crinkling.

“Yeah,” Noya nodded, “I was just...messing around.” 

Suga didn’t think even he believed his friend’s words.

  
  


When the day came to an end he was tired and beat up from the long day of manual labor around the shop. Not to mention how emotionally drained he felt from having to argue with Nishinoya after he sent the two high school kids home-both worried over him like he should have been over them.

So when he was only ten minutes away from heading home and a text came through, he found him sitting at one of the tables in the front to avoid standing any longer. 

He read the message twice, sighing over how Yamaguchi Tadashi managed to sound socially inept even over text.

_ From: Yamaguchi (Neighbor boy) _

_ To: Sugawara Koshi _

_ 4:49 pm _

_ ‘Suga-San, are you really sure it’s okay for me to come with you to your friend’s party? I don’t want to intrude on anyone and the last thing I want to be seen as, is an impolite person. Please let me know as soon as possible if you would like to just go to the party on your own.’ _

Of course, Suga felt bursts of chuckles as he read the message, amused at how much his new friend over thought things only to pause and remind himself that he did the exact same things at his age. It was a good distraction though. 

He quickly shot a text back, fingers flying across the keypad as he went.

_ From: Sugawara Koshi _

_ To: Yamaguchi (Neighbor boy) _

_ 5:52 pm _

_ ‘I want you to come with me, okay? I just found out my friend’s parents and work associates are coming too and as much as that’ll probably freak you out-i'd really appreciate having someone who I can talk with.’ _

He received the next message only a second later, it only being one word;

_ From: Yamaguchi (Neighbor boy) _

_ To: Sugawara Koshi _

_ 5:55 pm _

_ ‘Ok’ _




Suga should have told Ennoshita to start getting ready an hour earlier. In fact, he should’ve tried to tell him to start getting ready that morning, when he was on his way out the door-where he couldn’t get a hairbrush thrown at his face, because he was already zooming out the front door.

Sadly, he hadn’t done that, and was forced to nurse a hairbrushed sized bruise on his forehead as he tapped his foot anxiously outside the bathroom door.

“Come on, Ennoshita!” He yelled, banging a fist on the old beat up door that was already so accustomed to violence. Bokuto and Kuroo’s pranks could be held responsible for that. Last Saturday Kuroo had put on a Jason mask, to get into the spooky season, and jumped out at an unsuspecting Keiji, only for the smaller boy to turn around attempt to kick him in the face. Luckily, Kuroo had ducked.

Unluckily, the door received a dent and Keiji had to ice his foot for two days. 

“We should just leave him.” Bokuto grumbled from his own doorway, leaning into it with a groan. He stood beside Keiji and Kuroo-who were both dressed up quite nicely. Bokuto, not so much.

His hair was combed up like usual and he wore an old v-neck under a Pac-Man hoodie. A pair of baggy jeans that were too long on his legs, covered up a pair of used sneakers he used to wear when he had time to go on morning jogs. Sadly, he had to get up early for school now.

Keiji on the other hand, did not look like he was going to the same place as his boyfriend. He wore a button up shirt made from a shiny black material with little star charms added to the collar, giving him a very elegant look. The eyeliner he wore made his eyes pop, the long purple coat he wore adding even more vibrancy to his look. Overall, he looked absolutely gorgeous and made Suga feel just a tiny bit jealous.

Fortunately for him, Kuroo only wore a maroon button up and black skinny jeans, allowing the two to slightly match-Suga wearing the same outfit but in a lighter tone. The shirt he wore was a peach color, his pants a soft baby blue. 

All in all, they looked good. Kuroo’s leather jacket added a really nice touch, and Suga’s grey and white polka dot raincoat gave him a very approachable look. 

  
  


“We aren't going to leave him here and make him go on the train alone, Koutarou.” Keiji sighed after a moment, walking his partner on the shoulder with narrowed eyes. 

“We’re gonna be late though,” Kuroo whined, leaning just head onto Bokuto’s shoulder in a pitiful way, “We were supposed to leave five minutes ago. What if Ashai and Noya-“

He was cut off by the doorbell, it ringing soundly through the apartment like a reminder of how late they were going to be by the time Ennoshita deemed himself ready to exit the bathroom. 

“Oh cheese and crackers,” Suga muttered, turning and bounding down the hall, “I forgot about Yamaguchi!” He yelled over his shoulder at the other boys.

He lept over an old pile of Kuroo’s economics homework that was for some reason dumped in the hallway, and ran to the door. 

“Yama-San.” He smiled politely as he opened it wide.

The younger boy peered in, giving his neighbor a tiny and polite wave as a greeting, “Hello,” He smiled, “I hope I’m not intruding-but are we running a bit behind schedule? I thought we were leaving by seven.”

“Oh, we’re supposed to,” Suga chuckled, beckoning his friend inside and closing the door after him, “Someone just won’t get out of the bathroom.” He raised his voice at the end, angling his head to be directed down the hall so Ennoshita could hear.

“And speaking of taking so long to get ready-you look very nice, Yamaguchi.” Suga complimented the younger boy. 

And he was right, Yamaguchi did look nice in a deep purple sweater, a braid weaved through his hair elegantly. 

He looked much nicer than Bokuto. Actually everyone seemed to look better than Bokuto in the night of the fancy housewarming party.

“Thanks,” Yamaguchi grinned, a hand weaving through the fabric of his shirt, “I thought I might’ve underdressed-or overdressed-or just, not dressed well-and you know, I thought that maybe it’d be-“

“Is that Yama-Chan rambling?” Bokuto yelled at them, voice rattling through the apartment. His words were followed by the heavy stomps of his feet, as well as Kuroo’s quick steps. They immediately launched themselves out of the hall, heading straight for the poor, wide eyed, Yamaguchi-only for Kuroo to pull both of them to a stop.

“Bro wait,” He told his owl-like friend, “What if he’s uncomfortable with hugs?” He gestured to the skinny male with a very confused smile spread across his face, in front of them.

Bokuto looked to Yamaguchi with a frown, Suga mirroring it-in a very confused manner-before he looked back to Kuroo with a groan.

“But now I’m in a hug mood.” Bokuto whined, crossing his arms over his chest like it would ease away the want to hold someone craingky and welcomely. 

Kuroo seems to consider his words a moment, tapping a dumb finger against his chin like he was trying to pass for a genius in an idiot’s body.

“I’ll hug you instead.” He offered after a moment of all three men, staring at him patiently. Bokuto quickly accepted the offer, springing forward into his best friend’s arms and wrapping his own around the other man’s torso, in a way that made Suga vaguely irritated about his then current relationships with people.

“Wow, should I be jealous, babe?” 

A big thank you was sent over to Keiji as he stepped into the kitchen. In fact, Suga had never seen quite a look of absolute relief until he glanced over to see Yamaguchi happily sighing into his own hands.

“Keiji,” Kuroo smirked, once he had pulled away from his friend, “You have absolutely nothing to be worried about. I’ll take your man from you quick and easily. No need for us to have a car fight.” 

Keiji sent a deadpan look towards Kuroo and rolled his eyes as he walked through the group to walk over and greet an actually happy looking Yamaguchi.

“I’m really glad that you’re hanging out with us, Yamaguchi-San. It’s been way too long since we last saw each other.” He gave the boy a barley visa me smile and moved his hand to shake the other boy’s before stepping back to make small talk.

“Oh, I really missed seeing around the cafe too,” Yamaguchi said with a shy grin, twisting his foot into the carpet in an almost bashful manner, “But hopefully we can talk some tonight?”

“I hope so, that’d be nice.” Keiji replied, nodding at Suga and forcing the silverware to jump as he said to the group, “Although I do think Suga’s friend, Asahi, is going to attempt to get us all introduced to all of the big business men who are there.”

“I mean,” Suga snorted, rubbing the back of his head like it was an unconscious decision and telling the group, “Asahi’s family is lot more wealthier than most, because his mom and dad are the owners of some law firm or whatever. It’s gonna be really cool though,” He smiled, “Noya said they got the place to be catered and that there’s gonna be breadsticks, so-yay.”

“I don’t think you need to warn me about big events like this.” Yamaguchi heaved a laugh out and rubbed at his arm through his sweater.

Suga frowned, looking at his friend with a confused expression as he tried to understand what he meant, “Wha-? Oh.” He paused, reminding himself that with the parents that Yama had, it would be weird if he hadn’t attended any events like the one they were about to attend before.

Maybe he shouldn’t have made a confused sound, as Yamaguchi sent him an uncomfortable jerk of his shoulders, saying, “Sorry that must’ve sounded pretentious. I didn’t mean to sound snotty or something.”

Kuroo waved a hand out, giving a nonchalant, “No, it’s fine.”

Yamaguchi frowned, “But I-“ 

He was cut off by a loud voice, echoing from down the same hall they had all been in before the youngest male arrived, “Alrighty.”

Ennoshita appeared next, his legs moving like he was on a catwalk, coated in a pair of black leggings and torso covered by a deep blue flowy top Suga could only describe as gorgeous as the fabric shown in the shitty kitchen lighting. His shoes clicked on the floor, and Suga forced himself to squint, noticing the slight heel on Ennoshita’s black loafers. Suga definitely would’ve complimented his roommate if not for the next thing that came out of Ennoshita’s mouth;

  
  


“Let’s head out, bitches.”

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ya know I really just wanted to describe some people’s outfits.
> 
> The part is next chapter and maybe I’ll do a Halloween chapter after that. 
> 
> What do y’all think about Oikawa being Sailor moon for Halloween?
> 
> And blah blah Suga has baggage oof


	6. Martinis and Panic Attacks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Tell me what’s wrong, please.” Suga said in as kind of a voice he could muster. Which was hard, seeing as he wanted to go straight up to the man watching them and clock him in the face for glaring at his friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, sorry it’s been a month since the last update, I really wanted to add a Halloween chapter after this and post the two of them before October ended-but then shit happened. I’ve been writing for my creative writing class more than I’ve had time to write for fun. And apparently I suck at poetry lol
> 
> Have fun reading! Sorry about any errors in advance

“So you own your own restaurant?” 

Suga looked at the man in front of him with a strained smile. He was used to Asahi’s family by now, of course. They had known each other for years, after all, and he had been there before to be Asahi’s stress decreaser at parties, more times that Suga could remember. 

He was, however, still uncomfortable with the way that Asahi’s family seemed to know so many people-and that almost all of them there, if offended by the way he spoke, could make one call, and he’d be dead in a ditch.

So, he found himself carefully looking for the right words to correct the man, “Actually it’s a bakery.” He said with a kind smile to punctuate the end. Hoping it would make the other man nod and grin back, Suga gave him a tip of the head before chugging down the rest of the martini in his hand.

“Oh.” The man frowned, doing the exact opposite of what Suga has wanted, and adding on the words, “So, where’s your bakery? Is it on the East side of the city, or along the coast?” 

“Neither, actually,” Suga replied with an awkward tug of his own hair, “Its just outside the city, right next to the community college.” He looked away from the judging eyes of the portly man in front of him and over to Yamaguchi, who he could very clearly see was in the midst of panicking over so many people having the desire to speak with him. 

Apparently, a lot of people knew he was, being the son of so many important people. When they had entered the apartment, nearly everyone had ran over to introduce themselves, including a very stressed looking Asahi and Noya.

Suga glanced away from Yamaguchi and over to the couple in question, watching as they had a slightly uncomfortable conversation with Asahi’s parents over both of their careers. That was, until a man with a shaved head saddled up to them all and began making loud comments. 

Suga watched, amusedly, as Asahi’s parents gazed at the male with frowns and stern eyebrows. He almost snorted, in fact, when the man slung two arms around the shoulders of the couple and Asahi let out a very audible yelp.

Turning back to talk once again with the man in front of him, Suga nearly gasped as he watched a very memorable head of dark hair make its way over to Asahi and Noya, followed closely by a man who Suga had-very recently-befriended. 

“Excuse me.” He muttered to older man in front of him and nearly jogged over to meet the group, pausing once he was a few feet away from them all.

“So, I heard you got a date, man,” The one with the shaved head addressed the man with dark dark hair and  _ very  _ nice calfs-in Suga’s opinion.

“Yeah,” The man nodded, allowing Suga to get a glimpse of a small stubble growing in the man’s chin. Internally, he felt a bit jealous, never once having to shave his face, because of something in his family’s genes. But man, he really wanted a handlebar mustache.

“Oikawa here, introduced us.” The man went on, jabbing a thumb into a yelping brunette that Suga recognized instantly. He continues to watch, laughing slightly, as Oikawa scrambled out of the other man’s arm’s reach and bumped into a very grumpy looking man with a red polo.

“Iwa-Chan!” Oikawa said loudly, attracting a few neighboring eyes, as well as forcing Asahi’s mother’s eye to twitch irritably. 

“I’m being bullied by that dumb crow!” Oikawa carried on to the man he was practically being held by. ‘Iwa-Chan’ didn’t seem to be particularly liking the positions of the two of them however, and pushed Oikawa back some bit.

“Shut up, Shitty-Waka, you’re being too loud,” Iwa-Chan sighed in what seemed an exhausted manner, to which Suga noticed Oikawa began to pout and cross his arms childishly. 

“Go on, dude. Tell us about her.” The man with the shaved head said once they all looked to the man with  _ smoking  _ thighs. They were all peering at him patiently, including a rambunctious Oikawa, and a sort of snooping Suga. Although, Suga was pretty sure Oikawa was snickering under his breath.

“Um,” The man chuckled out, “Actually she’s a he,” He said to which the group let out humoured and good natured laughs.

“I bet he’s hot,” Tanka said, reaching out a hand and clamping a hand on the other’s shoulder and wiggling his eyebrows, “Daichi only goes out with guys with nice asses, you know.” He said addressing the group.

Suga took that moment to stroll into the group with a large grin on his face, slightly pink cheeks, and a new drink freshly plucked from the plate of a server, “Heya, Noya, have you seen Kuroo anywhere?” He asked and pointedly ignored the the other men in the circle.

“Uh, no, I-“ 

“Suga-San?!?” Oikawa’s screech-like voice rung out behind him, nearly causing him to drop his glass in shock.

He whirled around and let his eyes widen comically and take in the faces of the other four faces of the men in the group 

“Hello?” He said back, a slight frown crossing his face as he looked at Oikawa and this ‘Iwa-Chan’ person who very much looked like he’d rather be anywhere but where they stood. His eyes trailed over to the man with the shaved head and quickly went over to Daichi, seeing as the other had a very odd expression on his face-and Daichi looked so  _ fucking  _ handsome.

“Daichi.” He smiled, to which the other turned bright red and ducked behind a glass of what looked to be just orange juice. 

“Wait-“ Shaved Head gained their attention, “Is this-“ He pointed in between Suga and Daichi with a grin growing on his lips, “-Are you two-is this your boyfriend, Daichi?”

The group looked to the bright red face of the tall, dark brunette and waited as he choked on his drink.

“I wouldn’t call us boyfriends,” Suga muttered, picking at his nails and earning their wide eyes, “We haven’t even gone on a first date yet.”

He was met with an eruption of the group shouting loudly at him, the loudest being Noya and the man with the shaved head as they jumped up and down, Oikawa letting out a screech that would rival banshee’s and force most of the group to cover their ears at.

“I didn’t know you knew Daichi!” Noya grinned at the grey haired baker, moving around Asahi to look both of the males in question over, “We just barely met Oikawa over here. We were about to find you and let you know the cannoli freak showed up.”

The group burst into rambunctious laughter, ‘Iwa-Chan’ even joining in, despite looking like a grumpy elderly man. Oikawa, apparently very offended by the snorts at his expense, let out a, “Hey!” Which was quickly followed by, “I only did that once and that was because Daichi was chasing me to make sure I didn’t snack on anything too buttery.”

Daichi seemed unimpressed with the other man’s words. Removing his face from behind his cup, he let his eyes fix on Oikawa’s and then gave a stern, “You’re supposed to be training for your next match, dude. In fact, you told me on day one, you’d do whatever to takes to win.”

“But I love cannolis!” Oikawa grumbled aloud, resulting in him getting a smack in the head from at least half of the group.

Asahi gave a quiet huff, “You scared the crap out of Suga-San though.” 

The men looked at said man with wide eyes and worrying frowns. In fact, Oikawa seemed to be be looking at him guilty eyes and scrunched up eyebrows, while Daichi was slowly turning to Oikawa with a deep frown.

“Well-I-“ Oikawa stuttered, “I didn't mean to, alright? And we’re friends now, so we can just leave that all behind and move onto all becoming best mates.” He gave a pause before looking to Mr. Grumpy beside him, “Right, babe?”

He was met with a scoff and a roll of the eyes, while Suga gave a gasp and stuck out his hand excitedly, “Wait-so you’re ‘Iwa-Chan’? Oikawa’s boyfriend?” He shot the man an incredulous expression as he waited for the othe other man to answer.

The response he got was long intake of breath and narrowed eyes as the words replied back, were, “Please never call me that again, my name is Iwaizumi Hajime.” 

Suga shrunk back, startled at the stern voice-until a smirk broke through Iwaizumi’s face and he grinned out, “But, you are correct in who I’m the partner of,” he glanced over at Oikawa and face a sigh, “Unfortunately it is, Shitty-Waka.”

“Unfortunately?!?” 

The two ignored the shrieks let out by the other male, instead Suga replying with a good natured laugh and formally introducing himself to those he did not know. He patiently smiled as the very over enthusiastic ‘Tanaka Ryuunosuke’ very excitedly shook his hand and began to attempt to drag question after question out of him about how felt towards Daichi. The smile began to fall away as that seemed to be Tanaka’s only interest at that current moment, so instead, he but in to question how the four other men knew Azumane and Noya.

The response he got was slightly confusing. 

Asahi confessed he didn’t really know any of them, only being vaguely aware of them. And that was because Noya went to the gym Tanaka and Daichi worked at, where Oikawa and Iwazumi also trained.

The confusing part, was that Daichi insisted several times, he had seen Asahi and Suga in the gym. Suga imiediatly began to argue with him over that.

“The most amount of exercise I get is from my walks home after work,” he said, “I would never exercise in my freetime of willingly. I’m not insane.” 

Daichi responded without a shake of his head and a long intake of breath, almost like he was disappointed at Suga for being so honest, “That’s horrible Suga. For our first date we’re going to the gym.”

Both paused at that, faces growing pink as they thought about the upcoming date they were yet to set. And, apparently, the others found that quite funny, seeing as they cackled and pointed out the red blotches on Daichi’s cheeks and the warm ness to Suga’s ears.

“No, no,” Suga mumbled, hands curling around his glass curiously, “We should go out to dinner, it’ll be more relaxed and-“

“Okay.” 

He looked over at Daichi and grinned, watching the blush melt from embarrassment, to more of a happy warm glow drawn over his skin. Perhaps, he was looking the same, as Daichi smiled even wider as they looked at each other. 

But, of course, with the luck the two of them had (Seeing as the first time they met it had been over an argument about Oikawa) someone else had to cut in and take away the moment.

Kuroo appeared suddenly with a wild look in his eye, immediately tipping Suga off that either Kuroo had eaten too many little weiner appetizers-or something was very wrong.

He said, “Are you okay?” and looked around the room, trying to see if there was an on fire couch or a crying Bokuto, or even an extremely drunk and clumsy Ennoshita flailing about the place-only to see the house still packed with wealthy older people that were more likely Asahi’s parent’s friends-than anyone he knew. Nothing looked out of the ordinary.

“No. I mean-Yes-I-“ Kuroo made a wide gesture with his arms and sucked in a breath that made Suga realize-he was shaking.

“Kuroo…” He trailed off and looked over Kuroo’s shoulder to see a taller man glaring at them like he was hoping his eyes would make them burst into flames. Suga’s paternal instincts flared up at that and he grabbed Kuroo’s arm gently and pulled him towards the back of the group, hoping Kuroo could find some room to breathe.

“Tell me what’s wrong, please.” Suga said in as kind of a voice he could muster. Which was hard, seeing as he wanted to go straight up to the man watching them and clock him in the face for glaring at his friend. 

The rest of the group, seemed to want to do the same, Tanaka even going as far to send a snarl towards the man and Noya sending a look so vicious, Suga wondered if he was trying to murder someone.

“I-It’s nothing,” Kuroo muttered and let out a very un-Kuroo-like chuckle that sounded more like a dying donkey, “I just lost Bokuto and Keiji for a second and Yamaguchi went to the bathroom, and-and then-“ He breathed in sharply, “Ennoshita started talking to some girl, and then uh-I-“ He stopped and crossed his arms tightly,

“I’m sorry. I’m overreacting. He didn’t do anything, I just-“

“Who’s he?”

“What?” Kuroo blinked.

“Who’s he?” Suga repeated, “If he really didn’t do anything, point them out and I’ll talk to them and see what’s making you so overwhelmed.” 

The other male remained silent at that, eyes going down from Suga’s and onto the floor like it was the most interesting thing in the world. And the silver haired baker sighed, about to question his friend again-only to freeze when noticing little

tears erupt from the corners of Kuroo’s eyes. 

“Oh, Kuroo,” He placed a hand on his shoulder and looked back to the other people beside him. 

They all looked so concerned.

Suga, himself, was quite concerned, and made a

decision in only a second of what to do. He turned fully to the rest of the people and looked Asahi in the eye as he said, “I’m going to take him home now. Thank you for the lovely party.” 

“No problem, man.” Noya replied, eyes darting from Kuroo to the guy ghosting along the wall with a tight sneer.

“I’ll text you.” Suga said, directing his eyes to Daichi’s and then moving away from the group as they waved in parting. 

“Suga-“ 

He ignored Kuroo’s words and began to steer him towards the exit when a flicker of a memory went through him. 

Nearly seven months ago Bokuto had come home absolutely pissed about someone calling Kuroo transphobic slurs at a little deli near the college. He had apparently nearly beat the crap out of said asshole, until Kuroo had demanded Bokuto just leave it be so they could go home.

Of course, at the time Suga felt fury fill up his heart and soul, wanting to go back to that deli to see if maybe the guy was still there so he too could bear the shit out of him-only to realize that wasn’t going to solve anything. The best thing he could do, was comfort Kuroo and try to distract him from the horrible views of some people in the world. 

So, as he began to lead Kuroo to the exit, he tried his hardest to ignore the burning desire to run right up to the glaring man across the room from them-and ask him what he had done to his friend. 

“Let’s grab Yamaguchi. He looks uncomfortable.” Kuroo said in a low voice as they passed kitchen-and sure enough, there stood Yamaguchi with a very sweaty looking face, talking to three very enthusiastic people. 

And for a second Suga forgot about the weirdo in the living room, instead moving to gain Yamaguchi’s attention, “Yamaguchi, we’re heading out. Do you want to-?”

“Yes!” The younger boy cried, jumping away from the other people and almost running over to where Suga and Kurro stood. He was an odd contrast to Kurro, who-yes, usually was quite energetic and full of little jokes-was now hunched over himself and shaking like a leaf. Yamaguchi on the other hand, looked like he had won the lottery, being able to get out of a conversation with so many people. 

That was, until he noticed Kurro.

“What’s wrong with-?” He started to ask, his eyebrows zooming up to his hairline at the expression on Kurro’s face, as well as the way Suga was holding his arm like a pitying mother-but he was stopped before he could finish talking.

“Let’s go,” Suga commanded, steering them towards the front door, avoiding people’s nudging elbows, and clasping his hands over both of the boys’ elbows.

“Wh-what about the Bokuto and-“ 

“I’ll text them.” Suga answered, struggling to not send Kuroo a worried glance for the stuttering and moving one hand off of Yamaguchi, in favor of opening the door and holding it open for the three of them. 

The next few minutes went by in a blur of confused ramblings from Yamaguchi and Suga attempting to keep Kuroo from keeling over and passing out on the ground. He pulled both of the younger men out of the apartment building and walked them through the street and the down to the metro station. 

He ended up paying for both of their rides, not that he cared, and sat them both down in a row in a nearly empty compartment, minus a woman in the front with headphones on, and a couple, asleep on each other’s shoulders. He really hoped that the silence would prove to help Kuroo’s anxiety as time went on, and then moved look through boy over.

Beats of sweat were dribbling down his forehead and-his hands still hasn’t stopped shaking.

“Hey,” Suga whispered, holding out a timid and inviting hand, “Are you alright now? Do you need anything?”

With a shake of his head, Kuroo heaved out a sigh and let his hands unwrap from a tight embrace, letting one of them clasp around Suga’s and be squeezed gently. 

It was the friendliest thing Suga could offer in that moment, knowing full well, that, with all his past experiences with Kuroo, the man would only want to start talking about his own personal problems, when he was in charge of speaking first about it.

So he focused his attention next to Yamaguchi, who sat on his left, Suga being sandwiched between the two men. He gave him a tired smile and asked, “So, did you enjoy the party?” 

“Er-yeah.”

Suga’s eyes flicked up to the still noticeable pit stains of Yamaguchi’s shirt and shook his head slowly, “You don’t need to lie,” He said, “I was pretty uncomfortable for a bit too-sorry that I let those old farts steal you away.” 

Yamaguchi’s mouth dropped at Suga’s words before it melted into a smile and a shocked giggle escaped his lips. Which he immediately covered with his hands.

“And remember that guy I was telling you about?” Suga asked, glancing at Kuroo and mentally sighing when he could see he was slowly starting to melt away his anxiety, instead focusing in on Suga’s words. 

“Yeah? The one with the nice legs?” Yamaguchi replied, punctuating his words with his face flushing.

“Mmm,” Suga hummed, nodding his head, “And nice arms. And face. He’s really cute.”

“What about him?” Kuroo asked, voice sparking with interest and a twinge of gratitude.

“Well,” Suga said, “He was at the party tonight. Apparently Asahi and Noya know him and that guy I told you about, the one who crawled into the bakery and begged for cannolis. It was really crazy, honestly, heading them talk about my ass and not knowing I was right behind them-“

“Wait what?” 

“How do Asahi and Noya know him?” Kuroo frowned, as if talking about Suga’s behind was a normal day occurrence, and causing Yamaguchi to grow bright red, being the innocent person he was.

“I didn’t ask,” Suga groaned, “I got too caught up in the conversation and didn’t even think to ask how everyone knew each other. I mean, at least I met Oikawa’s boyfriend...maybe Asahi’s parents invited them.”

“What’s Oikawa’s boyfriend’s name? Do you think he goes to the college?” Kuroo asked, hand pulling itself out of Suga’s in order to play with the dead skin around his nails.

With a finger to his temple, Suga gave the name, “Iwaizumi Hajime.” The reaction from Kuroo was swift and much louder then the previous near whisper words he had earlier spoken;

“That’s Ennoshita’s boss!” 

“Really?” Suga gasped. “How does everyone know everyone? It seems everywhere I turn, one of my customers ends up being some long lost cousin to one of my roommates or cashiers.” 

Yamaguchi looked like he wanted to reply at that-but at that moment a robotic voice went over the intercoms of the metro-car, alerting them all that they would reach their destination in two minutes. It was so loud, the girl in front took out her ear buds and glared at the ceiling, while the couple were jostled awake.

“Oh, I should probably text the others now.” Suga mumbled aloud, reaching into his back pocket and sliding the device out. 

He typed a message out quickly, noticing the same look from earlier, spread back onto Kuroo’s face and hit send as fast as he could. 

  
  


_ From: Sugawara Koshi _

_ To: Keiji-San, Bokuto,  _ and  _ Bitch Boy  _

_ 10: 32 pm _

_ ‘Hey guys! Kuroo and I just left with Yams, so we’ll be home in a bit. I don’t think Kuroo will be awake by the time you get back, but I’m going to stay up so we can talk about something important, alright? Text me when you get this’ _

He closed his app message and tucked his phone away just as Kuroo began to peer over his shoulder to see what he was typing.

A grey cloud seemed to form over his head at the thought of the long talk he was going to have with his other roommates about what happened at the party, and he slunk his hands back into the other two’s hands, giving not only them comfort, but himself. The other didn’t argue over it though, and Kuroo even squeezed tighter.

“Come on.” He told them, standing up once the car came to a stop and it was time for them to leave.

He held on tightly to them in the crowded station, ignoring the slight pain that crossed him when a woman in heels stepped on his toes, and lugging them out into the cold streets and then into the rotten-food smelling lobby of their apartment building.

Yamaguchi, the nervous child he was, visibly stiffened once they passed the spot where he had hurled up his lunch, nearly three weeks ago, and clutched onto Suga like the emotional support parent he had apparently earned the title of. 

They rode in the elevator together, silently, minus a few of Suga’s concerned mutterings whenever Kuroo got a particularly distraught look on his face-and then parted ways once they reached their apartments. The two said goodbye to Yamaguchi and Suga considered giving him a hug-only to backtrack into a simple wave-as he thought that maybe he had already invaded too much of Yamaguchi’s level of personal contact for the day.

“Good night.” He called over his shoulder and heard the click of both their doors shutting. He quickly removed his own coat and then kicked off his shoes. He moved to help Kuroo with his-only for the boy to wave him away and give him a look that read ‘I’m not a child’.

“So…” Suga muttered aloud as he watched Kuroo sit on the floor and untie his laces, “Do you want me to make you something to eat? I didn’t eat a lot at the party, all I had was a few drinks, but enough to make me-“

“I don’t want to talk about it, Suga-San.” 

Suga blinked, “What? All I was asking was if you wanted a-“

“I’m going to bed,” The man said quietly, kicking off his shoes and crossing his arms like the air was too cold around them, “I know you just want to butter me up with a bowl of soup or something and get me to spill why I was acting as weird-“

“No, I-“

“But I really don’t want to talk with  _ you _ about this stuff.” Kuroo went on like Suga hadn’t spoken, “You don’t get it like Bokuto. I just-I’m really tired and there was a lot of stuff that happened tonight, okay? I-good night.” 

He began to slink off down the hall, leaving behind a slightly hurt Suga, whose stomach was grumbling like an angry bear, ready to gobble up whatever food or feelings he came into contact with.

“I’m sorry about interrupting your time with your new boyfriend though.” Kuroo called back once he reached his own door and then shut himself away.

Leaving behind Suga, who stood in the hall alone, looking after the shadowy form of his friend, who eventually disappeared.

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Am I projecting onto Kuroo? 
> 
> ...Maybe


	7. Pancakes and Early Mornings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this one is really short. 
> 
> But I wanted to update so
> 
> There you go.

Suga ended up staying awake until three am that night. His eyes were like two dry balls stuck inside his skull as he watched the hands on the clock tick away in front of him. Perhaps he had been to invasive towards Kuroo, butting into his personal life and demanding answers from him as to why had acted so odd at the party.

But had Suga been unkind? Suga shook his head and let a frown etch itself into his lips. He didn’t think he had been unkind-maybe a little nosy-but that was just because he cared so much about his friend.

Why hadn’t Kuroo been able to see that?

With a groan, Suga leaned into the couch. waiting for his other roommates to arrive home. It felt like he had been waiting for days since Keiji had sent him a text that they were on their way home, nearly an hour after he sent his own in the current situation with Kuroo.

He propped his feet onto the couch before stopping and frowning down at the pale skinny legs that stretched down to his socks. Perhaps he was delirious from a lack of sleep, but it seemed that his skin was so translucent it tinged a blue color.

Quickly rubbing at his eyes before looking back down, he felt his dry eye sockets regain some moisture. He glanced down at his legs and lifted a finger to play with the long hairs that suck out of it. 

Was he supposed to be shaving? Bokuto and Ennoshita shaved, he knew that from the way both of them had razors in the bathroom cupboard-but did they shave their legs? Did they shave just their faces? What about their armpits?

Suga pulled his arms close to his torso before reaching a hand under his shirt to mess with the hair under there too. 

Was this a weird thing to do at two am? Absolutely. 

But he couldn’t help but feel like the thoughts drifting towards a new subject, helped relieve some of the stress he was feeling towards Kuroo.

“What do Ennoshita’s legs look like?” He asked aloud to himself, wondering when was the last time he saw his friend’s hair quantity. From what he could remember, Ennoshita generally wore his work slacks or a pair of skinny jeans. Both, always covered his legs. His pajamas were also long fluffy pairs that always had Christmas designs printed into the fabric.

Not exactly something Suga desired to think about, but he still had his mind bring him back to the night before, where Ennoshita had stood in the kitchen making tea for everyone, in a pair of red and white candy cane striped bottoms.

Suga was going to ask about where he got those.

But on to Bokuto, Suga was always seeing his legs. Not that the young baker was always looking his roommate over-but because Bokuto had an odd habit of walking around in Keiji’s booty-shorts, whenever he had the chance. 

And yes, he did have hairy legs!

Suga smiled to himself on the couch and let his hand fall away from playing with all of the hair on his body. He was content with himself. 

He wasn’t weird for having practically a mane of hair down his calfs, and everything was normal and he didn’t have to worry about-

His thoughts cut him off with a jolt, “ _ What if Daichi doesn’t like body hair?”  _ He asked himself.

Luckily, his roommates entered the apartment at that moment, dragging him away from his nervous mumblings and mental stressors-forcing him to worry immensely over the three of them, 

Or-two of them? Keiji wasn’t really a roommate anyways, and was incredibly responsible at not over doing it with drinking. Sadly, the other two, were not so fortunate and were nothing like Keiji.

And so, Suga watched as Bokuto ungracefully knocked into the hallway coatstand, before slamming the front door shut after Keiji, who dragged a  _ very  _ intoxicated Ennoshita inside.

They all swayed under the dim kitchen light Suga had left on, when he had heated up for himself a frozen burrito. They stared at Suga with exhausted eyes, clearly dreading whatever he was about to tell them and visibly cringing when Saugus opened his mouth to speak, already then, preparing for the worst.

“You guys look tired.” Suga told them dumbly and got onto his feet to help Keiji lower Ennoshita onto the couch. They ended up dropping him with an ‘oomph’.

“Fuck you, man.” The man-now half draped on the floor, and half in the couch-moaned with his face pressed down into the sofa cushions, “I just wanna sit here and-and-sit here.” A whiny noise echoed Chikara’s words and Suga felt himself stifle a chuckle back.

He looked over at Bokuto and Keiji, silently asking whether or not they should leave the drunk man in the couch all night. They responded with avoiding his eyes and leaning into each other’s arms, Bokuto letting out a drunken snort.

“Guys,” Suga sighed, moving around Ennoshita so he could kneel down and place a comforting hand on his back, “I wanted to talk about something really important before we went to bed, okay? We all had to leave early from the party because-“ 

“Can we talk about it in the morning?” Keiji cut him off, looking like a stick that was about to snap under his boyfriend’s weight, “I’m sorry, but I really think I need to get this one to bed,” He jabbed a ginger into Bokuto’s chest, “And I, myself, am pretty exhausted.”

Suga let his teeth dig into his bottom lip anxiously, “But Kuroo-“

“Kuroo’s asleep, Suggy.” Bokuto sloppily ground out, taking an odd step, despite not even needing to move at that second, and nearly causing himself and Keiji to fall over, “He’s totally fine, we don’t need-ah worry bout ‘em.” He finished once they were both standing back up-right.

“That’s besides the point,” Suga argued, “If we can figure out what’s wrong before he wakes up, we can solve it for him and then-“

“Suga, that’s not how problems are solved.” Keiji replied with a sickly sweet voice and made Suga realize he wasn’t being taken seriously at the moment, “I know you want to help, but he can’t not be a part of all of this-“

“But he-“

“Suga, we know you care about us all, a lot,” Bokuto spoke up, “But you also need some rest. When was the last time you got more than six hours of sleep?”

A moment of silence passed over the living room as Suga tried to think over Bokuto’s words. He racked his brain as far as he could go, wondering when exactly had he slept a decent amount? 

“Judging from how quiet you’re being,” Keiji said, “I’ll take it that you can’t remember a time when you’ve gotten a full eight hours.” 

Suga glared at his friend, momentarily cursing his own decision to not lie in response to the earlier question. He felt like he should’ve just sad something random to prove his point and then carry on, to argue with the others. His tongue was twitching to add something new to the conversation and his eyes were so dry from intensity and want for sleep-he looked near mad to everyone else.

“Go to bed.” 

Blinking, Suga looked to Keiji with a dumbfounded expression. He watched as the man lumbered down the hall with Bokuto towering on top of his shoulders like a heavy sack of flour, before shouting over his shoulder, as they went into their bedroom;

“I mean it, Suga-San! Go to bed before I have to carry you.” 

And then the door shut and Suga was able to make faces as the door as if it was Keiji’s back. He put his fingers in his ears and stuck out his tongue, trying not to think about how hypocritical he was, seeing as he had yelled at Hinata for doing the same exact thing a few weeks ago when Kageyama wasn’t looking.

He only stopped when he could hear the creaks coming from Bokuto’s room. He couldn’t really tell if it was from the bigger man throwing himself into his bed, or if it was from-the moan that echoed a second later, could only mean one thing-

“He hit his head on the backboard.” Suga confidently said out loud, ignoring the discomfort taking over his body.

“No,” Ennoshita mumbled from the couch, and startling Suga, as he was ninety percent sure he had heard light snorting from Chikara, earlier in the conversation. “They’re fucking.” Ennoshita went on, his loud giggles punctuating his words like a young high school boy.

“Shut it.” Suga snapped, grabbing the other’s arm and pulling him over his shoulders. He was met with loud groans and annoyed chatter from the boy as he made their way down the hall towards the bedroom that Kuroo and Ennoshita shared. 

Oh.

He hadn’t thought that through. 

The door in front of him looked nearly ominous in the lack of light. The kitchen ones were still on, but they couldn’t reach that far down the hall, leaving Suga to stare at the dark door with apprehension, a hand outstretched to grab the handle, and the other steadying Ennoshita beside him. 

In the end, the noisy filled room down the hall got him moving.

The handle turned slowly, but it wasn’t locked, thankfully, and it creaked open in a low sound that Suga jumped at. 

The lights were off, leading to Suga taking a blind step inside and waiting for his eyes to adjust so he could lead his drunken roommate inside.

“C’mon, Suggs, I’m sleepy~” Ennoshita whined in his ear, moving him forward even more until they reached the bed on the left side of the room. It was noticeably cleaner than the right side, allowing Suga to move through it without worrying about stepping on a lego or kicking over a pile of clean and dirty laundry mixed together.

He could still smell the weird lemony sent mixed with sweat and dirt from the time he had fallen face first into Kuroo’s laundry basket. 

Speaking of Kuroo, he looked over at the other side of the room, as Ennoshita crawled into bed noisily and awkwardly. The bed on the opposite wall had a noticeable lump under the covers, while the back of Kuroo’s head faced him. It was like he was getting the silent treatment even when Kuroo wasn’t even trying to-

His eyes caught a slight movement in Kuroo’s shoulders. 

He wasn’t asleep.

Suga looked back at Ennoshita, sprawled across the bed, before tucking him in like a mother hen, shoving his feet back onto the bed, as they were hanging off before, and then heaved out a sigh as Ennoshita’s immediate snores filled the room.

“You know,” He said in a low tone as his eyes flickered from the two beds in the room, “I’m trying really hard.” He let his voice falter out into a whisper, “But I know you are too, and I’m sorry if there’s too much stress right now.” He glanced at Kuroo and watched as the man’s shoulders stiffened, freezing in bed.

“I love you guys,” Suga went on, “You're my family.” 

And he was telling the truth in that moment. His mom had passed over five years ago, he didn’t know where his dad was, and nana…

Nana wasn’t going to be around much longer. 

Not that she would even be able to remember Suga’s name when she passed. 

But he had a lot of good people in his life still, and he made sure to think about that every time he started even pondering about his blood relatives. 

“Good night Ennoshita,” He whispered into the dark room, watching as Kuroo refused to roll over and look at him. He considered reaching out and putting a hand on his shoulder, in hopes that maybe he’d get a warm response back-but he didn’t have anymore energy left that night.

He trudged out of the room and let the door fall shut behind him with a click. 

Moving down the hall to his room felt like an eternity, despite it only taking ten seconds. It did however drag on longer when he realized he needed to turn off the lights in the front of the apartment. 

He marched about, shutting them off and picking up Ennoshita’s shoes by the couch, to throw them towards the front door. Moving, like an old man with a back problem, he went back down the, going for his room, only to stop once again and bang on Bokuto’s bedroom door shouting,

“I’m going to bed now, so you two better shut up!” 

And after the considerably loud sound of someone falling off of a bed and one of the men shouting out some apologies, Suga went to his room, not bothering to shut his bedroom door, nor putting on his pajamas. He simply kicked off his skinny jeans and slipped off his collared shirt like they were strapped to his body and then flopped onto his bed with an oomph.

“What a day.” He whispered into the air, his head falling to right so he could gaze out of his bedroom window. He watched a light drizzle begin to fall, watering his plants that he let sit on the fire escape, and hitting against the window like the water was asking to come inside.

And he wanted to let it in for some odd reason.

Maybe it was sleep deprivation.

He fell into his pillow once more and let the sounds of the rain take away his mind, lulling him into a much needed sleep, that was very much fed through stress and anxiety.

But who cared?

He was finally lying down.

  
  
  
  


...

  
  
  


The next two days passed easily until it was the weekend. And waking up on that eventful Saturday morning was the most terrifying ordeal of Suga’s young life. 

He had opened his eyes softly, letting the sunlight fill his vision and the sight of his somewhat messy room fill his brain with the thoughts, ‘I really need to clean my room’ and ‘I wonder where I put those cake pans in the bakery kitchen?’

Which wasn’t anything new, he was constantly misplacing things around the house. Bokuto once found his keys in the bathtub after the time he got home from work late and had decided to treat himself to a bubble bath. The whole ordeal had been sluggish and tiring though, leading to him throwing a lot of random things in the air in his haste to get in and then get out. His work apron had been soaked from the event.

But, as Suga lay there in bed, he realized he could smell the delicious scent of pancakes, along with the sounds of people laughing and talking in the kitchen like they were having a late breakfast.

He frowned, watching the sunlight and slowly filling with dread over the realization of what time it was. 

Suga always got up before the sun rose, that was how he got to the bakery on time and began prepping all of the pastries. That was how he got the meringue all freshly whipped for the pies and how he got the cookies freshly baked so they were nice and warm for early customers. It was how he got all of the tables freshly sparkled, the sign out front written in fresh chalk, and the flowers in the window, freshly watered. 

So, as he flew out of bed to grab his phone and check the time, he filled with panic. He knocked into his bedside table, letting out a curse, and distantly hearing the voices in the other room come to a halt. He didn’t stop to care though, instead nearly screaming when he saw it was  _ 10:20  _ by the time he checked his phone.

“No no no no no…” He rambled, grabbing a pair of sweatpants that he had left on his bedroom floor and trying to yank them on as he flew out of his bedroom.

He stumbled into the walls of the hallway as he pulled his pants up, mind screaming at him for being so foolish and not setting an alarm the night before. He had let all of his costumers down, he had completely ashamed himself, and his employees-

“Oh my god!” He yelled, zooming into the living room and tumbling over his feet as he fell into the couch. He paid it no mind though, and shot towards the coat rack, grabbing at his sweater’s pockets to look for his keys. 

Today was Yachi’s first day, and he wasn’t even there. She was supposed to show up at ten o’clock, along with the other two boys, and work until four thirty. 

And he  _ wasn't  _ there.

His hands dug inside his pockets, pulling at strings desperately, before grabbing the entire sweater and throwing it onto the couch as he patted it down like he was looking for a precious valuable.

“Where are they? C’mon-what the hell?” He groaned, shaking the sweater a few times. 

“Hey, man, calm down-“ 

“I can’t find my keys!” He erupted, spinning around to look a worried Bokuto in the eyes, his lips going together tightly like he sucked on a lemon and was experiencing it’s sour aftertaste.

“Yeah, we took them.” Bokuto replied easily, forcing Suga’s jaw to drop in a matter of shocked seconds. 

How could Bokuto do that to him? Did he want him to lose business? Or have the bakery go bankrupt and shut down? 

Wait, did Bokuto say ‘we’?

Suga looked over his roommate’s shoulder to see Keiji staring at him over the stove. A spatula was in his grip, a pancake sizzling in front of him in a pan, while his eyes followed Suga like an agile cat.

And-curiously-Yamaguchi sat at the counter, chin covered in syrup, a forkful of food halfway raised to his mouth. He looked like a kid with their hand caught in the cookie jar, and Suga felt like scolding him. Not because he was eating in Suga’s home, of course, that would be silly to get angry about. Yamaguchi could come over whenever he wanted. Who cared if Suga had only known him for about a week? Suga did have a tendency to take in strays all the time, Ennoshita was a clear example of that. So who cared? No, Suga was frustrated that the sweet boy hadn’t stopped whatever Bokuto had done with his keys. And, while they were at it, he was annoyed with Keiji too. How had he let his boyfriend steal Suga’s keys?

“What do you mean you ‘took’ them?” Suga frowned, “I need to get to work right now, if I’m any later I’ll miss giving Yachi her training-“

“Ennoshita has them.”

Suga’s eyes were dragged over to an empty lounge chair that Ennoshita claimed every morning like it was his throne. He even ate in it-although the others weren’t really allowed to argue about it, seeing as he was the one who bought it. Also it was absolutely disgusting, covered in past stains from Ennoshita’s late night and occasionally drunk dinners.

But the point was it was empty.

“And where is Ennoshita?”

The others avoided his eyes.

“Guys? Where is he? I need to go.” He looked over at the front door and bit his lip worriedly. God, how late was he? Did Kageyama still have that spare key Suga gave him in case of emergencies? Sure, he was better at keeping track of things than Hinata, but that didn’t mean he was good.

“He’s at the bakery.” 

Suga’s eyes zoomed back over to Keiji, widening like he was seeing something truly horrific, like they were all choking at the same time, and he asked a stunned, “What?” 

“Well, by the time we all woke up, it was like nine, and we knew you hadn’t been sleeping really well,” Bokuto explained, “So we talked about whether or not we should wake you up. And when we looked in on you-not because we’re creepy,” He held up both of his hands defensively, “But, because you left your door open, we saw how you were still sleeping, so we decided that we shouldn’t wake you up,” He then pointed over to Yamaguchi and moved towards the kitchen as he spoke, “And then Keiji started making breakfast so Kuroo went across the hall and asked Yama-Chan to join us. But when he got here he was like, ‘What about the bakery? Suga wouldn’t want to leave it unattended for the day’. And we were like, ‘you’re so right dude’. So we all talked about it, and then Ennoshita said that since he used to work with you there, he could just go in for you. So he left and then Kuroo started saying that he should go help, ‘cause he doesn’t have any classes on Saturday either. And then he headed out and the three of us decided that you need a day off and so we also called that guy Daichi for you, forgot to mention that-we were gonna wake you in a few minutes-cause we set up a date for you two and he’s gonna be here in twenty minutes.” 

The silence that followed Bokuto’s long speech was like something out of a horror movie. Suga’s angry and long pained intake of breath came slowly but surely, eyes forming to angry slits and his mouth curling into a scowl.

“You did what?” He growled, backing up from the couch as Bokuto began to shrink back behind Keiji, like he had some odd belief that his boyfriend had a chance of fighting off a vicious Suga.

“Why would you do that?” Suga carried on, “I haven’t even showered or brushed my teeth yet! I haven’t picked out an outfit or styled my hair or had breakfast or-“

“Okay, but we texted him, from your phone, that you’d love to grab something to eat,” Yamaguchi said while licking a trail of syrup that went down his fingers, “So you don’t need to worry about that. Just go have a quick rinse, and we can choose your outfit for you. It’ll be great.” 

Suga blinked.

“You guys stole my phone too?” 

“Well, we put it back.” Bokuto shrugged, reaching around keiji to throw an entire pancake in his mouth. It ended up with crumbs falling from his mouth and onto the disgusted shoulder of his boyfriend.

“Oh yeah, that definitely makes up for you going through my stuff. Thank you so much.” Suga grunted, glaring over at his friends.

“You are welcome!” Yamaguchi smiled before turning around on his stool and continuing with his breakfast.

  
“What-wait-no I didn’t mean-”

“Go take a shower, man!” Bokuto cut the baker off, “It’s like you want your date to show up while you’re still all stinky and in your jammies.”

Suga glanced down at his undershirt and old sweats, a sudden redness covering his face as he thought of how embarrassing it would be for Daichi to show up and see him looking like he had just crawled out of bed.

He marched out of the room like his feet were on fire at those thoughts, hoping he had enough time to look through his whole closet and maybe cover up some acne scars that dotted his forehead. But, of course, by the time he had washed himself and dried off, his phone was buzzing with a text from Daichi. 

And of course, he couldn’t look at it, as there was an intense round of knocks on the bathroom door demanding for his attention.

“What?” He called out, wrapping a towel around his waist and throwing another over his shoulders. 

“We picked out your clothes!” Came the excited voice of one Yamaguchi Tadashi.

Suga cracked the door open a bit and reached out a hand, giving the signal for the younger man to past him the garments. He trusted Yamaguchi’s decision on what he should wear, afterall, it wasn’t like Suga knew what to wear.

He didn’t even know where they were going.

“Thank you, Yamaguchi.” He said despite his frustration with the others. 

Grabbing the clothes and shutting the door, he looked over the outfit and gave a nod of satisfaction. 

From past experiences with Bokuto and his horrid taste in attire, he could only assume that he hadn’t been allowed anywhere near the decision for what Suga was to wear on the date.

A pair of soft light blue jeans were in his hands, along with a button up decorated with tiny dinosaurs printed onto it. A quick and easy guess was that it came from Yamaguchi’s closet, seeing how expensive the fabric looked and how it was a tiny bit snug around his stomach. And the fact that it had the creatures Yama was always wearing.

Suga sighed as he finished the last button up and looked at himself in the mirror. He really hoped Yamaguchi was mad at him, and was trying to butter him back up with loaning a shirt.

Because first off that was a really weird way to apologize. And secondly, he hadn’t done anything wrong, and really, it was good that Suga was finally going out with the guy he had been gushing about to so many people.

And, with all of that in his mind, he tucked his hair behind his ears and exited the bathroom, hoping Daichi wouldn’t mind him being a little stressed out over all of the drama from the whole morning, or the fact that he and Kuroo hadn’t had a conversation since the night of the party.

“Well, it’s go time.” He whispered under his breath as the sound of the door bell echoed throughout the apartment. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter is their first date!! Whoop whoop
> 
> Edit: ayeeee we reached 69 comments


	8. Crab Macaroni and Unwanted Waiters (First date pt 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “ So,” Pinkette smirked, either ignoring the tension in the air or loving every second of their awkwardness, “Do you guys want kids?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey hey hey winter break is coming up-so guess who’s gonna be spending it by writing the whole time?? This guy right here!!! 
> 
> Anyways, this one is short because part 2 should be up soon.

Suga was sweating like crazy. Yes, it was windy as all hell outside and he was wearing only a simple, thin sweater-but the nerves of being on a date for the first time in  _ quite  _ awhile with someone like Daichi-was enough to send him coated in a layer of nervous sweat.

“So I thought we could head over to this little restaurant down by the docks,” Daichi smiled over at him, walking down the narrow sidewalk, “Its got this great macaroni and cheese mixed with crab. Honestly, it’s one of the few foods I can chow down on without rushing to jog it off.”

“See, that’s where we’re so different,” Suga chuckled and ignored the way a bead of sweat traveled down his chest, “I don’t think I’ve ever willingly gone for a run on my own accord. Also I’m basically always surrounded by frosting and butter, so I’ve totally abandoned that whole ‘exercising’ thing.” 

Daichi’s eyes grew comically large, a shocked-but obviously over done-gasp escaping his mouth, “Suga!” He said like the other had committed a great sin against everything he stood for, “I don’t know how I’m going to survive

being with you when you keep saying stuff like that.”

“Oh, so we’ll be going on more than one date, huh?” Suga chirped, a slow grin spreading over his face as he slowly eased himself away from all of the anxiety he had stored up in his chest. Maybe that was all leftover from Asahi projecting onto him. 

Nonetheless, he grew more confident and flirty as he watched Daichi’s cheeks turn a light pink after his words.

“I-I mean,” Daichi let his eyes wander around the street, taking in the hordes of people, the tiny street shops, and the occasional odd puddle of a mysterious liquid he would not want to know the ingredients of. 

“Maybe,” He said after a moment and a shiver went down both of their spines, tingling their skin and sending pleasant waves through their brains.

“We better hurry up then so we can eat some crab macaroni.” Suga said.

And so they trotted farther along the streets, making their way towards the east, where the ocean lay, and the smell of fish could reach their nostrils. Maybe Daichi should’ve picked a place a little less odorous for their first outing together.

Or maybe not. Suga was still wearing a bright smile and and chatting along happily like hearing Daichi talk, was the most important thing in his life.

“So what do you do at that gym across the street?” Suga asked, swinging around a lamppost and feeling the cool dirty metal on his hands, “You said you’re training Oikawa for something? What’s that about?”

Daichi answered just a moment later, a clear intake of breath as he watched the carefreeness of Suga’s walk and the puppy-like tilt of his head. And the way he smirked when he realized Daichi was watching him with a fond smile.

“Uh-um-“ Daichi stuttered, ducking his head for a moment and then lifted his eyes to keep walking straight, “I’m a personal trainer. People sign up to meet with me and then we work on what we discuss would be best for them.”

“Hmm,” Suga hummed, nodding along to his words, “Amd Oikawa? You said he’s got some big match?”

“Yeah,” Daichi nodded, “He’s hoping to become a professional Volleyball player and the next game he plays in there are gonna be some scouts from

The national league-so we’re hoping they find an interest in him.” 

“Dang, he’s been chattering on about volleyball for as long as I’ve known him but I didn’t know he was like ‘that’s what I wanna do with the rest of my life’ serious.” Suga chuckled, eyes glittering to Daichi despite the grey clouds above blocking out the sun.

“Er-yeah,” Daichi said, “And he’s allowed to be cocky about it. He’s like, really good,” He fixed a serious look to Suga and went on with his words, “I don’t wanna sound like I’ve got favorite clients or anything-but he’s got a skill level that I don’t think a lot of the guys I work with, can catch up to before the big day comes up.”

“Oh? Those are some pretty bold words there, Daichi. When’s the deadline?” 

“January 25th.” Daichi replied easily and watched as a smile dragged over Suga’s lips.

“That’s close,” The baker said, “Is Oikawa the only person who’s training towards a deadline like that with you?”

“No, I’ve also got his boyfriend, Iwaizumi Hajime. They’re on the same team and I think they’re both trying to get scouted by the same people so they can stay on the same team for as long as possible,” He gave a roll of his his shoulders and cracked a smile, “Which I find sweet.”

A nod was sent back to him as Suga agreed and then asked-or more accurately-snorted out, “Do you remember at the party, when I called him Iwa-chan? He looked like I had just asked him to eat an old piece of ham off of the floor.”

“Yeah that nickname is reserved for Oikawa only,” Daichi snickered, “They grew up together, from what I’ve gathered, and will literally attack anyone who refers to them by the nicknames they’ve given each other.” 

“Must be true love.”

“Yeah,” Daichi hummed before the moment of silence got dragged out for too long and both felt slightly awkward over what to say next.

Luckily, Suga had the conversation topics covered.

“So, what was that Tanka guy talking about at the party?” 

A frown dusted Daichi’s features at the question and he looked at the other man with a cock of his head, “What do you mean? He only asked about how we knew each other, right?”

“No,” Suga replied and a smile, that looked particularly evil, crossed his lips, “He said you only like guys with-what was it? Oh yeah, nice asses.”

Daichi blinked, face coloring in a bright red that made him look suspiciously tomato like.

“I-I don’t-“ He swallowed and watched the amused grin on Suga’s face grow wider with each desperate attempt he made to construct a sentence, “I mean, he only said that because uh-once he met this guy I was dating and uh, he thought he was a girl from behind and um, I think you can imagine what he commented.”

“Lemme guess, you and this guy didn’t last long after that?”

Daichi shook his head and laughed, face still a warm pink, “No, but we’ve always been friends. We met when we were five, so I guess we just like, tested out the dating thing,” He chucked out next, “Hayato’s actually one of my classmates this year so we still talk a lot.”

“Oh, that’s good.” 

Daichi looked up to where Suga walked beside him and watched the slight biting of his lips as he averted his eyes to the grey clouds overhead. 

“But I don’t really see him that-“

“Oh look, we’re here.”

Both of them looked straight ahead to the restaurant Daichi had suggested, and let their eyes travel towards the roof of the building, where a gigantic lobster lay atop of it, a top hat and a neon sign signaling for people to come inside and eat.

“It’s very cute.” Suga commented as the made their way inside and a series of underwater themed pictures, hung framed on the walls. 

Daichi didn’t know what to say back. The clam lamps along the ceiling were mildly embarrassing, making him feel like Suga was judging and scrutinizing every aspect of his personality via the decor of the place. Which, it was kind of was, seeing as he was the one to suggest the place and decide for both of them that it was the best spot for their first date.

Oh fuck, this was a first date.

“So, hows that one guy from the party?” He asked as they sat down in a booth and were left by a waiter to scan over the menu, “The guy that you had to take home early? He seemed pretty upset.”

“Oh uh,” Suga frowned down at the table and heaved his shoulders into a simple shrug, “I think he’s okay, but he won’t really talk to me. I mean, he left really early this morning to go help out at the bakery-but I think that was just so we couldn’t have a discussion over what happened. I think he’s feeling uncomfortable around me because I have a habit of trying to solve every problem that comes our way.”

“How old is he, Suga?”

The baker froze, lowering down the menu he was holding to look into Daichi’s warm brown eyes, “What?” He asked and made the same confused puppy dog look from earlier.

“He’s an adult, right?” Daichi pressed on, “Same age as your other roommates I’m assuming, so why are you taking this so close to heart? He probably just needs to blow off some steam and act his age. You’re not the cause of that.” 

Suga looked at him with two wide eyes and a surprised open mouth that gave him the appearance of pikachu, the menu dropping from his hands and onto the table as he said back, “I-that’s-thank you.” 

He got a nod in return and they both looked on, content. After awhile, they gave their orders to the waiter who came by their table, and got two orders of crab macaroni. Daichi was particularly ecstatic at the decision, and hid a large grin behind his hands as Suga ordered “Extra cheese and crab”. 

“So are you going to tell me why you texted me this morning and told me if I didn’t take you on a date today, you’d cry?” Daichi said while they waited for their food to be cooked.

“I texted you what?” Suga asked back, his expression turning horrified.

He received a confused chuckle back and felt Daichi’s warm almond eyes gaze over him, “I mean, that’s what you said. Word for word. I found it cute and everything, but really it was just kind of funny to read first thing in the-“

“That was my roommates.”

Daichi let out a snort.

“I can’t believe that’s what they said.” Suga grumbled into his hands, letting out a tiny whine and trying to cool down the warmth in his body, “Oh my god, I’m so sorry. They’re all idiots and they like to pull practical jokes like this all the time-“

“It’s fine!” Daichi cut him off, “I’ve got Tanaka to deal with and he does stuff like that a ton too. And he’s got Oikawa to do it with now, so yeah, I know your struggle.” 

Suga peeked through his fingers and gave a giggle, “You should meet Bokuto and Kuroo when they’re together-and Ennoshita when he’s drunk,” He gave another bright smile that made Daichi’s heart thump loud, “And Yamaguchi when he wants to impress them can be just as bad. He nearly put his hand in a blender ‘cause they told him to clean it.”

“How does that even-“

“I don’t know,” Suga smirked, “But they’re all idiots,” He pauses and thought for a moment, “Well, Akaashi isn’t dumb, he’s just insanely evil at times.” 

Daichi raised an eyebrow at that, “How many people do you live with? Is your entire building just one room?” 

“No,” Suga laughed, “Akashi is Bokuto’s boyfriend and Yamaguchi is the kid from across the hall. You didn’t meet them, you only met Kuroo.” 

“Ok,” Daichi nodded, only to pause and frown like he was busy with his thoughts. Suga opened his mouth then to ask what was wrong, only for Daichi to beat him to talking.

“Does one of your roommates have dark black hair in a bowl cut? And like, their name starts with a ‘Ch’ sound?” 

A silver whisp of Suga’s hair fell into his own eyes and he said a shocked sounding, “Do you mean Ennoshita Chikara?” 

Daichi clapped just hands together and sat up taller in his seat, pointing at Suga like he had just told him where to find the ancient city of Atlantis.

“That’s the guy I met after you left!” He smiled contently and looked back on a memory that Suga was unaware of.

“You’ve met Enno?” 

Daichi moved to answer Suga immediately, “He was the guy who kept on getting numbers from like every women he passed. I swear, I looked over at one point and saw Asahi’s grandma chatting him up.” 

“Okay,” Suga nodded with a laugh, “That sounds like him. But you guys talked?” 

“Yeah,” Daichi answered, “I’m not sure he would remember me though. He only started talking to me because he wanted to tell me about the fact that he could do a backflip off of the wall.”

“He-what? Suga frowned, a wave of confusion going over his pale face like it had slapped him rather than gently appeared before him.

Luckily for both of them, the story Daichi was about to tell, was humorous and showed only the very rare side of Ennoshita, in which he acted like a complete buffoon.

“He came up to me, basically swaying on his feet, and told me he could do a backflip off the kitchen wall, if I wanted him to demonstrate,” Daichi explained, “And I said no, because that would almost definitely end with him breaking his own neck, not to mention the fact that Asahi and Noya just got that place, so it’d be a shame if something were to happen to the new home.”

“Well at least that’s all that-“

“I’m not done.” 

“Oh god.” Suga moaned into his hands, feeling second hand embarrassment for his roommate, and utter shame over the thought of Daichi judging him for Ennoshita’s actions. 

“He got kind of annoyed when I told him not to practice any gymnastics in our friend’s house. I think he thought I might’ve been someone else for a second also, because at one point he called me Futakuchi. You know who that is?”

They both looked at each other with scrunched up eyebrows, both clearly trying to think of someone with that name.

“No,” Suga replied, the look on his face very evident that he didn’t like his own answer. But, he couldn’t know every aspect of his friend’s life. That would be unrealistic. And a little stalkery.

“Hmm,” Daichi hummed, “Nonetheless, he was treating me like an old friend and asking whether or not I’d had the chance to look into the ‘pics’ he’d sent me.”

“I-I’m sorry, what?” Suga snorted, absolutely out of the loop of whatever was going on with Ennoshita that night, “Are you serious right now? What does that mean? What photos?”

The answer he got back was not very helpful.

“I don’t know. I just told him I had to go to the bathroom and then went off to find Oikawa and make fun of his ears.”

Suga thought furiously at that, “What’s wring with his ears?” 

“Nothing, but I like to watch him squirm sometimes.”

After heaving out a laugh to prevent an embarrassing giggle, Suga watched as Daichi let a pleased smile fall over his lips. And, maybe if he was reading to much into it, that stemmed from his ability to get the baker to let out a chuckle. Or maybe he was just always smiling like that. Either of the options were absolutely fine to Suga.

“He was probably just really drunk.” Daichi said with that smooth and easy smile, face plastered in a pink glow.

“Probably,” The other boy nodded, “He does have a tendency to say random things when he’s under the influence.”

“Same,” Daichi laughed, “Like right now I’m under the influence of your beauty and it seems that I’m about to say-oh, no, look at that. I already said something dumb.” 

The color red was not and is not, nor will it ever, be good enough to describe Suga’s face after those words. It lit up like Rudolph the reindeer’s nose, and perhaps if they were still out in the grey cloudy weather of that day, he could’ve guided both him and Daichi through the street without the worry of a car not seeing them.

And even more unlucky for him, it was at that moment that their food arrived hot and ready to eat. A little too hot for the current mood of the table and Suga’s body.

“Alright” The sever grinned at the two, blissfully unaware of the gradeschool-like flirting that was occurring right under his nose, “Two orders of crab macaroni. With extra cheese and crab for the silverette,” He placed the bowls down in front of them both, “And then we’ve got a sprite and

a hot coco.” 

The man in the white apron stood before them with the two drinks, looking uncertainly at them like it was the first time had even really seen them. He had an odd shade of hair too. It looked pink to Suga. This guy wasn’t the same waiter who had taken their orders. The first had been mildly quiet, with shorter black hair that reminded Suga of Keiji. This guy was way different. 

“I don’t want to sound rude,” The waiter said as they watched him place both drinks down on the middle of their table, “But whichever one of you sadists ordered a hot chocolate with crab macaroni, I hope you understand the crime you’ve committed today.”

He flashed an easy grin at them, which was very quickly and suddenly replaced with pursed lips and squinted eyes, “Why’re you so red, man?” He asked, addressing Suga, “You look like you’ve just-“ He ducked down and looked under the table, earning a yelp from the two other men, “Oh, thank god,” he said as he stood back up, “I thought y’all were getting handy under the table.”

“E-eh?!?” 

“Anyways,” The pink haired pervert carried on like he had been invited on their date, “Why are you so red? Did I embarrass you with the hot cocoa comment?” He grabbed the drinks once more and put the hot drink in front of Suga, the sprite going to Daichi, “There we go,” And then-

He SAT DOWN.

“So, what’s the deal with you two?” He asked, pressing into Daichi’s side and reaching over him to fan the steam coming from their food, “I don’t think this is a business meeting, you’re wearing a cute little sweater that’s way too casual for something like that-“ He pointed over at Suga and then to Daichi, “And you look way too happy to be talking about business,” He began to rush on with his words, Suga’s mouth dropping open as a complete stranger went through their facial features and clothes and even going as far as to hypothesize on why his hair was an unnatural silver color.

“Did you dye it? I bet you dyed it.” The pinkette grinned before saying his final theory,

“So, you’re both on a date, aren’t you? Your little nervous movements make me think this is a pretty new one, so what is it? Fourth date? Third?”

“Wha-“

“I don’t-“

“Oh, it’s your first, isn’t it?” The man grinned in an evil manner that reminded Suga of the way Bokuto and Kuroo’s eyes glinted when they were up to something mischievous.

“First dates are always the most important,” He gushed anyways, “It’s where you decide if you like the other person, where you figure out what they’re like, what they’re allergic to, and if they want kids or not.”

Suga felt his face engulfed in flames again, this time Daichi joining in on the blush fest. The first day was definitely not the time for them to talk about stuff as important as children. 

“So,” Pinkette smirked, either ignoring the tension in the air or loving every second of their awkwardness, “Do you guys want kids?”

“Of course not!” Suga yelled at the same time Daichi mumbled out a “Yeah.”

They both stopped and stared at each other, eyebrows raising to their hairlines. 

“I-you-What?” Suga gasped, his heart pounding in his chest like a sledgehammer was smacking down on him, trying to break his ribs in half. 

He got no answer in return, Daichi simply stared back like his life had just ended.

“Hmm, what an interesting development,” The waiter hummed at a moment that Suga was very much considering punching him in the face and vaulting over the table. 

Fortunately, he didn’t have to deal with the man.

“Hanamaki!” 

They all jumped, looking up to see the first waiter that had come by to take their order originally, towering over the pink haired guy, a scowl on his lips, “What the hell are you doing?” He asked, and in that moment Suga realized he was missing his apron, and his name tag…

He looked over at the pinkette.

His nametag read  _ Matsukawa.  _ That wasn’t right either. Why would the other waiter call him something that wasn’t his name?

“I told you it was okay to chill in the back, but I never said it was okay to steal my uniform and deliver food while I was on a smoke break.” The man with Keiji-like hair chided, grabbing whoever his friend was by the collar and yanking him up.

“Uh,” He looked back at the shocked faces of Daichi and Suga, “Please don’t tell my manager about this. I can pay for your dinner but please-“

“I-it’s fine. We can still pay.” Suga heard his voice saying, although it really wasn’t fine and he was stuck with Daichi, who was refusing to meet his eyes.

Who Suga assumed was Matsukawa, gave a big sigh of relief and sent him a grateful smile before dragging his friend to the back of the restaurant, while the other let out whines and screeches. 

“Jesus christ.” 

Suga looked over at Daichi with an open mouth, lips parted like he was trying to say something else-only to stop when he noticed the gaze directed at him.

“Haha, that was so weird,” Suga laughed, anxious over the possibility that maybe the baby comment had just ruined everything.

“Yeah, w-we should eat before our food gets cold.” 

Holding back a disappointed groan, Suga shoved his food into his mouth.

It was still warm.

  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hmmmm this isn’t the last we’ll see of those two rat boiis. 
> 
> And yo guys, I wrote a future chapter for this, and like, someone shouldn’t be allowed to drive ever again, like lol no spoilers tho

**Author's Note:**

> Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
> 
> My tumbler;  
> https://asksugathebaker.tumblr.com/ask


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